Caught in the Act
by giverofgrace
Summary: Part 2 of 'Life Lived' Series. Alex Rider has been dead for 2 years. 2 years ago a new soldier came to BB for training. How does K-Unit seem to know this man when they come back, 2 years after Alex's death? What will his appeareance mean?
1. Remembering Cub

Caught in the Act

ALEX RIDER IS DEAD. SOON AFTER HIS FUNERAL, A YOUNG RECRUIT ARRIVES AT THE SAS TRAINING CAMP AND TRAINS WITH THE SOLDIERS. HE IS A SPY FOR THE MI6, BUT LIVES AT BRECON BEACONS WHEN NOT ON MISSIONS. K-UNIT IS CURRENTLY ON AN ASSIGNMENT BEING BACK-UP FOR FOX (BEN DANIELS). WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY COME BACK AND SEE ANOTHER PERSON'S LIFE BEING RUINED BY MI6?

Chapter 1: REMEMBERING CUB

_SAS Training camp_

"Jaguar! Get your lazy but over here! I don't care if the sergeant wanted to talk to you! You're going to be late!" Screamed Heron, C-Unit's leader, with a grin on his face.

"Stop the screaming, Heron! I'm right here. I've been here for about 4 minutes waiting to see when you'd notice!"

Heron whirled around at the sound of a voice behind him. "Wha-Wher-?" he sputtered.

"Right here," Jaguar responded, stepping out of the shadows of the trees with a smirk on his face. "Haven't you learned by now that I can sneak around after 2 years of me being in your unit?"

"I have learned, but that doesn't mean I can't get startled every time you use your reappearing act," Heron replied with a rueful smile on his face. "One of these days I might just have to sneak up on you and see how you like it."

"Good luck with that, Heron," a new voice called out. "Remember the last 7 times you tried that? You didn't get within 15 feet of Jag before he noticed you!"

"Shut up, Coyote," Heron replied good-naturedly to the team's medic.

"Hello? C-Unit? Anyone home? Anyone caring that we're going to be late for combat training?" Racoon, the team jokester called out. "Heron? It's not usually like you to not be forcing your unit to be there early."

Heron just responded with a glare, fully knowing that Raccoon knew about him trying to get the unit moving, but having to wait for Jaguar.

"I'll settle this in combat training, Raccoon. You versus me. Let's see if you're still so anxious to get to combat training," Heron kept his face deadpanned, but everyone knew this was revenge.

Raccoon visibly shrank back from Heron and proceeded to run all the way to combat training.

First up was Jag and Possum, the last member of the unit. Heron studied Jag as the two battled it out and thought about how much he reminded him of Cub, an under-aged agent who had trained with K-unit a few years back. The looks were totally different, though. Jag had dark brown hair and green eyes, while Cub had had blonde hair and blue eyes. Also, Jag was less of an empty shell than Cub had been, but Cub had been really young and amazing at hand-to-hand combat, same as Jag. Of course, Jag wasn't under-aged, as he was 22 years old, but he was still young and relatively new to the business. Still, he and Cub's fighting techniques were very similar.

Heron didn't realize that he had spoken this out loud until Coyote responded.

"Yes. I've been thinking the same thing. Maybe he and Cub were taught by the same instructor?"

"Whose Cub?"

This time Coyote spun around in surprise. "Jag! Seriously! You really need to stop sneaking up on people like that."

"Make me," was Jag's only retort. "Anyways, whose this Cub character?"

"Cub was a 14 year old who got recruited into the MI6. All of his family had been killed-mainly due to their large involvement in the MI6, and the heads thought it would be a good idea to send him to finish the mission that got his uncle killed. Cub didn't want to do it. He was a reluctant spy." Possum replied with a note of sadness in his voice.

"Then why was he a spy if he didn't want to be? Unless…."

"Yup. They blackmailed him. He was their secret weapon. He was amazing at what he did, and even became their top agent. #1 at the age of 14, almost 15. He had a success rating of 100% until the very day he died at the age of 15. He never lived to see his 16th birthday. He was shot while on a mission with Fox, one of K-unit's members. The two of them had been a great team. After being on one mission together, the heads saw how good the two of them worked together, and paired them up on almost every mission. Fox might deny this, but Cub is the reason that he became MI6's second best agent. Spying was in Cub's blood and he had an amazing sense of adaption. Put him in any scenario and throw a million obstacles at him, and he'll come out on top, with no one questioning who he is-even if he was undercover. After his guardian died on Cub's 8th mission, he was sent to live at a friend's house in America. That didn't last for long, though as the friend's entire family was killed. After that incident, he came and lived here, with K-unit. I don't think I've ever seen a closer relationship between soldiers in a unit. Wolf nearly blew his top when he heard Cub's life story and about getting black-mailed and everything else. Anyways, that was 2 years ago. He's dead, and MI6 has yet to feel any remorse." Heron finished the story.

"You forgot to mention something!" Raccoon butted in. "K-unit finished running back up for Fox, and are returning to England. They'll be here tomorrow for the first time since Cub died!"

Jag looked at him with a smile plastered on his face. On the inside, though, he was freaking out. 'Shoot!' he thought. 'They'll take one look at me and realize who I really am. And then they'll tell everyone whose trust I've finally gained that I've been lying to them for 2 whole years!'


	2. Surprised? I'll say

Chapter 2: Surprised? I'll say.

_SAS Training Camp_

"Attention!" the sergeant called out. "K-unit will be arriving in a few minutes for some touch-up training. At least, that's what Fox tried to convince me of over the phone. Personally, I think he just wants to see you guys and get his head ripped off by Wolf. As you know, none of them have been here since Cub's death, so don't bring up that subject AT ALL! Am I clear, Raccoon?"

"Crystal clear. You said make sure you bring up the subject of Cub and how he was killed and how Fox could've prevented it," Raccoon replied, but hastily changed his wording once he saw the sergeants face. "I was just joking! I'm hurt that you think I would do something so cruel to them!"

"Right…. Anyways, for all of you who have been recruited in the past 2 years and have never met K-unit, just remember this. Those on their good side live. Those not on their good side don't. Cub introduced them to two things called pranks and revenge, and, well….you can guess where that went. Any of you who have no clue who the heck Cub was…..just don't mention his name-ever. Then, maybe Wolf won't bite your head off. And no, that wasn't a joke. Whether you choose to listen to this small snippet of advice or not is up to you, but don't come crying to me when you wind up in the hospital wing."

With that, the sergeant sat down and allowed the soldiers to continue eating their food. Well, mush, as the substances on their plates could not be described as real food. All the same, the soldiers went back to their normal routine and chatted with their units while digesting the mush.

This chatter was broken by silence a few minutes later when 5 men wearing army fatigues and combat boots walked through the front doors of the mess hall for the first time in 2 years.

They had an air of calmness that seemed to wrap around them, but only if you didn't know them personally. Friends of theirs, like C-unit, noticed how their muscles were slightly tense and how Fox's eyes were scanning the room for any dangers. They were obviously not fully comfortable with all of the eyes being trained on them and the lack of noise that accompanied this.

"Hey! K-unit! Over here!" Possum called out attempting to bring the chatter up and get rid of the awkwardness of the situation.

"Hey, C-unit," Wolf said looking slightly relieved to be called somewhere and to be able to get out of the center of attention by not standing in the middle of the room. "How's it been in the past 2 years since we saw each other?"

"Yea," Tiger, the newest member of K-unit agreed. "I mean, we've talked on the phone and stuff, but you guys only want to talk about the weather. See, now we can finally convince you to spill the beans on everything that's ACTUALLY been happening."

During this mini speech, Jaguar had been keeping his face hidden, but was still studying the 5 men standing before them who were part of K-unit. When Fox had gone to the MI6, Tiger had come and taken his place in the unit. Jaguar had heard of how awkward things had been in the first days that Tiger had been there, but apparently as soon as Fox and Cub had come back and announced that they would be living at BB while not on missions and would be staying with K-unit, and then things had immediately settled down. Now, you couldn't guess that there had ever been any misgivings between the members of that unit.

Eagle, ever to get to the new and 'exciting' info, burst out, "So what's this about you guys having a new member of your unit? How old is he? What does he look like? Is he any good? Are the rumours true? Is he REALLY a MI6 agent? When will we-"

He was abruptly cut off when Wolf smacked him in the back of the head. "SHUT UP and THINK for once. There's five people sitting at this table, and you've only ever met four. What does that mean?"

Still rubbing the back of his head, Eagle replied sheepishly, "…Maybe the fifth member is the new member?"

"Congrats! Give the man a prize!" Wolf practically shouted with sarcasm lacing his words.

Before things could get too out of hand, Heron decided it might be a good idea to jump in. "Yup. This here is Jag-I mean Jaguar. We just call him Jag for short. But he's not really a NEW addition, seeing as he has been with us for 2 years already."

"Jag?" Coyote butted in. "Pick your head up. You CAN look them in the eye without getting your head bitten off. The sergeant was exaggerating. Or are you scared?"

"Our Jag? Scared?" Raccoon blurted out incredulous. "He's NEVER scared! Do you not remember the first day he came here and how he was thrown in with us? Do you not remember that time we got captured by some terrorist organization and the people were telling him he'd die a slow and painful death and he laughed in their faces? NOTHING can scare Jag!"

"Unless….he's got something to hide…" Eagle, not wanting be left out, butted in sneakily with a small smile playing on his lips.

"No," Coyote refuted. "Jag's got nothing to hide. We've all seen his file-however thin it was. His entire life story was complete without any room for lies."

A small snort escaped Fox's lips. "Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure Jag has nothing to hide, but if you think that life stories with no holes in them are always the truth, then you've never encountered MI6."

"True, but Jag's clean," Heron concluded. "Come on, Jag! Not again! Why do you have to be so capable of getting us off task and off topic when it suits your wants! Ugh. NOW PICK UP YOUR HEAD BEFORE I DO IT FOR YOU!"

"OOOO! Jag, you better do as he says! He's getting mad! Either that or stop getting him off track all of the time!" Raccoon stated.

"But I didn't say a single word!" Jag cut in, using a Russian accent.

"Cool accent!" Eagle stated. "Raccoon! Why didn't you tell me he was Russian?"

"Because he's not!" An angry Heron burst out. "He's British and has a British accent and should fear for his life IF HE DOES NOT SHOW HIS FACE RIGHT NOW!"

Slowly Jaguar raised his head and looked directly into Fox's eyes who had been studying him. Fox's eyes widened when their eyes locked and he stumbled backwards, his face going dead white.

"But…But… YOU'RE DEAD! I killed you! And even if you did survive the bullet, there's no way anyone could survive that explosion! I killed you!" Fox started rambling on after knocking a chair over backwards with a big 'bang'.

Fox's eyes were still huge and his face was still dead white. Snake jumped up and sat him down in a chair directly across from Jaguar. For his part, Jag was looking more relaxed than C-Unit had seen him in all of the 2 years of their acquaintance. Jag even put his feet up on the table and leaned back, proving just how in control of the situation he was.

C-Unit's accusing and confused eyes turned to Jag and then back to Fox. There was definitely history between the two of them, but that secret was locked away.

"Fox?" Wolf asked gently. "Who is this guy, and why did you attempt at killing him?"

When Fox didn't answer, Jag butted in with a laugh. "He didn't attempt at killing me! He would've commited suicide if he did!"

This was met with even more confused glances, as the two statements seemed to clash. Everyone turned to Fox who had gotten himself a bit more composed.

"…Is it really you?" Fox asked of Jag.

"In the flesh. Don't you remember that I have the luck of the devil? Have you already forgotten how many times you thought I was dead just to have me show up the next day? I really thought higher of you," Jag stated with mock hurt.

Suddenly they both started grinning at each other.

"You have to tell me everything! How the heck did you get away from those guys and how did you survive the bullet and explosion? Where've you been? Does MI6 know you're alive?" Fox was overly excited and almost hyper.

Jag let out a small chuckle. "You're just as bad as I remember you! Always asking questions. Well, not when you were around the soldiers where you had to keep the 'silent and deadly' act up, but still."

"Fox?" Snake interrupted. "Who is this, and how do you know him?"

Jag looked up at K-Unit. "I seriously gave you guys more credit than deserved. I thought for sure you'd take one look at me and know instantly who I was. Well, I always knew you would never make great spies."

All of them came to the same realization at once. There was a mixture of "Oh my gosh!" and "It can't be" coming from K-Unit.

Only Wolf voiced the name they were all thinking.

"Cub?"


	3. The All Knowing Sergeant

Chapter 3: The All-Knowing Sergeant

_SAS Training Camp_

"Wow! I thought you'd never guess it! You must have hollower brains than I thought for it to take you that long!" Cub/Jag exclaimed.

The entire room waited for Jag's head to be chewed off by Wolf, but Wolf could help a smile coming over his face.

"You do realize that you're the only one who can say that and get away with it, don't you?" Tiger put in.

"Of course," Cub replied nonchalantly. "And I intend to make full use of it. After all, I am the expert at ticking people off….much as many captors have found out."

At this statement all of K-Unit had to burst out laughing. The other soldiers were still confused. One minute Fox, a legendary figure is talking to someone who he thought was a ghost from his past who he had killed and the next minute this 'ghost' was being rude to WOLF and getting away with it and even making Wolf _laugh_! This was almost too much for their brains to handle.

C-Unit was also mostly out of the loop, only understanding bits and pieces of what was being said. After all, they had met Cub on occasion, but most of the time that they really spent with K-Unit was when he was on a mission, mainly as that was just how the dates fell. All they knew was that Cub was actually Jaguar (or Jaguar was really Cub?) and that Cub had died after being shot and then later blown up two years ago.

"Ummmm…?" Possum broke the silence that ensued Cub's last comment.

Cub looked at him. "Let me guess-you want an explanation and proof, just like the rest of the people sitting in this room."

"Duh," Eagle and Raccoon stated in unison.

"Yea, but it's really creepy to see you with brown hair and green eyes," Fox reminded him.

"If you think this is creepy, what were you thinking all of those times we went under cover together? What were you thinking when you saw me as the perfect Arab homeless boy with dark hair, eyes and skin, and wearing rags?" Cub questioned.

"That was okay because I didn't know for a fact that it was you at first and your appearance was changed just enough," Fox retorted.

Cub started chuckling, "So you didn't know it was me when you held me at gunpoint and forced me to walk to the MI6 headquarters? You didn't know it was me when you threatened me and blew MI6's cover? That would have been just so perfect if it wasn't actually me and was actually a refugee!"

Fox's face turned beat red, "Well…I saw you go into the hotel with a man, and I saw that man with a slightly different appearance and someone your age come out of the hotel, so it was a logical conclusion, and the fact that you followed me in the first place hinted something to."

Cub couldn't stop laughing.

"Jag! STOP LAUGHING AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Heron yelled.

Fox quickly reached over and yanked Cub's wig off. "There, that's better. Except your hair is still a bit darker than it was…"

"Well, I dyed it brown until yesterday when I found out that you were coming and knew that you would blow my cover, so I washed out most of the dye and used a wig instead."

"So does MI6 know that you're alive, or was this all one big massive plan on your part to fake your own death so you could be free from them?" Snake questioned.

"I wish it was a big plan on my part to get my life back, but sadly no," Cub responded.

"Wait. If you're Cub, than that means you're not actually 23, you're actually…" Coyote tried putting the pieces together.

"I'm actually 17. I turned 17 about a month ago. I still don't know how you guys believed that I was 6 years older than I actually am."

"Well, in our defense," Heron started, "the sergeant told us how old you were and gave us an official file. And, well, you don't really act your age. Don't take offense at that."

"None taken. It's not really your fault that you haven't been living a lie since you turned 14 and haven't been manipulated to the world's content," Cub said with a sigh.

"Wait a second…" Fox butted in. "The SERGEANT told you how old Jag was? He came right out and stated it?"

"Yup. We thought it was a bit suspicious, seeing how he also told us that Jag may look younger but he really isn't," Coyote answered.

"We might've questioned it, but well, although his looks said one thing, his eyes told a totally different story," Raccoon added sadly.

"Yea, that's true. We-JAGUAR!" Heron screamed the last word. "YOU AND YOUR MANIPULATIVE WORDING AND CONSTANTLY GETTING US OFF TRACK!"

"What are you talking about?" Cub asked innocently.

"YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WELL WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT, CUB!" Wolf shouted. "We WERE talking about how you were still alive, and now with your normal word twistingness, we're getting more and more off topic!"

Fox laughed. "You should see it when he had to get information out of the enemy. After a two minute conversation, Cub could have them pouring out every aspect of everything they knew!"

"Fox," growled Wolf. "You're doing it too. Honestly, I don't know what's with spies and directly every conversation that they are a part of."

"Back on topic," Tiger interrupted. "Did the sergeant know about you, Cub?"

"Of course," Cub replied nonchalantly. "He knows like everything. The MI6 gave him my entire file-nothing excluded when I came back here as Jaguar. I must say, he was pretty eager to get his hand on that thing."

"So the sergeant knew all along, and yet he didn't find it necessary to tell us, or even K-Unit for that matter?" Possum wondered.

"Yup. He knows a lot more about a lot of stuff and secrets than any of you guys. He's privy to almost every secret." Fox interjected.

"Wow. So he's like the all-knowing Sergeant?" Eagle asked.

"Yup. That basically sums it up," Cub agreed.

"Ugh! You sneaky spies are directing the conversation again! We have yet to hear what exactly happened to Cub and how he managed to survive!" Snake interrupted.

"Okay. Everyone sit down. Now START TALKING, Cub." Wolf said in raised voice levels.

Cub took a deep breath and collected his thoughts, "Well…" a small smile played at the corner of his lips and amusement raced into his eyes. Only Fox noticed this, and so only Fox knew what was coming. "That's classified."


	4. The Art of Getting Information

Chapter 4: The Art of Getting Information

_SAS Training Camp_

"JAGUAR, CUB, WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS I DON'T CARE, BUT YOU ARE GOING TO SIT THERE AND YOU ARE GOING TO TELL US WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED! I DON'T CARE HOW LONG IT TAKES YOU, I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T WANT US TO KNOW, BUT YOU ARE GOING TO TELL US AND YOU ARE GOING TO TELL US RIGHT NOW!" Screamed Heron, obviously ticked off.

Cub attempted at standing up and running away, knowing that Heron's and Wolf's tempers could get pretty bad, but sadly, this is K-Unit we're talking about and they know Cub. He had only half risen from his position when Wolf, Snake and Eagle shoved him back in his chair, and Tiger prevented him from sliding down and onto the floor.

"I forgot that you guys have a set system down now for every time I say that," Cub stated while trying to get out of the chair.

"I think they got a little too sick of the two of us saying classified to all of their questions," Fox reminisced.

"Well," Cub started after settling down and getting comfortable in the chair. "I think you forgot how amazing I am about resisting interrogation, and how great I am at RTI's."

"We didn't forget," Wolf began from behind him. "We, well I, just came up with a better method than tying you to chairs which you automatically get out of."

"What's this 'new method'," questioned Cub who was feeling slightly apprehensive from hearing the smile in Wolf's voice.

"You'll find out soon enough. Now, if I recall, you generally get away with not telling us when you manage to use your spy skills and get away. So what if this time you don't get away?" Wolf began.

Cub was getting more and more apprehensive about this. "Fox? Can you be parental control on this one? I don't really like where Wolf's going with this."

"Well, seeing how I heard in your voice how you were actually going to tell us the truth and only said 'classified' for the kick of it and to see how our unit would react, I will. I can tell that you are fully willing to tell us. I'll watch Wolf," Fox replied after some thought.

"Good," Cub stated, obviously relieved. "So, Wolf what's this brilliant idea of yours?"

There was a moment's pause, which ended in a slight decrease in pressure on Cub's shoulder. Before he could react, though, a fist connected with the side of his head and everything went black. The last thing he heard was Wolf answering his question, "To not give you any chance of escape and to take you someplace that you won't know where you are-mainly because you'll be unconscious for the journey. That's my brilliant idea."

And the world was black.


	5. Gadgets can be helpful

Thanks for all of the great reviews! And thanks for the tips, too! I know I put 4 chapters up almost at once, but I had previously written them. All of the rest of these chapters will not be posted that quickly. They will be posted as I finish writing them or have the time to write them.

If you have any ideas for me, don't hesitate to tell them in a review, though don't be disappointed if I don't use it or I don't use it right away. I want to know what you guys think about my story and what you think should happen.

Chapter 5: Gadgets can be Helpful

_Location Unknown_

When Cub opened his eyes, everything was still black. He was in some sort of enclosed space that blocked all light from coming in. The area wasn't damp, but had an underground type of feel. Cub made sure not to make any type of noise as he reached down to pull out his glasses from his pocket. This was made difficult, as his hands were expertly tied together, but he still managed.

After putting on his glasses, he couldn't help but groan allowed at the sight that they gave him. Unknown by the other members of C and K units, these were special glasses that had infra-red, night vision, and binoculars all in what looked like ordinary reading glasses.

His ankle was chained to the wall, and all members of C and K unit were sitting around various parts of the room. But more importantly, Cub knew where he was.

"So I see you've awoken, Jag," Heron broke the silence.

"Obviously you are mistaken, Heron. If you had any brains, you would've realized that you can't see a blessed thing in this bunker, and that you only know of my consciousness because of my groan."

"Don't be such a smart-Alec," Wolf growled.

"That's kind of hard to do when your name is Alex," Cub replied with a smirk on his face.

"It doesn't matter," Heron interrupted what was sure to become a full blown argument. "As you can see, okay, so not see, but still. As you may have NOTICED, we have the upper hand right now. You are tied up, and chained to a wall, and you have no clue where you are, not to mention being stuck here alone with Wolf and I, and we're not exactly known for our amazing tempers. Things will go just fine if you just tell us what we want to know."

"How do you think C unit and K unit will be feeling right now as you just left out of the count?" Cub wondered innocently.

"WHAT?" Wolf cleared his throat. "I mean, what do you mean the rest of them? They have no clue what is going on right now," Heron amended his first statement.

"Guys, seriously? Have you already forgotten that MI6's top agent is here? I mean, I've already gotten out of the ropes!" Cub stated, slightly annoyed.

"There are only 3 people dow-I mean, in here," Wolf replied firmly.

"I might believe you, if I couldn't see Possum, Coyote and Raccoon hanging out in the corner to your right, with Eagle, Fox, Snake, and Tiger sitting along the wall running between you guys and C-unit. By the way, why is Fox tied up?" Cub asked.

"I'm tied up because I tried to warn them that you would know where you are, and that you'd be able to tell that we're all here, and then I tried to search you and get all of your gadgets out of your pockets. Oh, and to not chain you to the wall. I told them that would make you angry, and that you'd probably not tell them anything until they let you lose," Fox's voice came out of the darkness.

"SHUT UP, FOX!" Heron and Wolf shouted in unison.

"Now Cub knows that we're here," Tiger sighed.

Fox snorted. "He's known from the moment he became conscious. He's not an idiot. And I did tell him that I'd be parent control over Wolf and Heron."

"Do you really have gadgets, Cub? Are they cool ones? How can you see me? Are they hidden? Are they secret weapons? Do you have a nuclear bomb? Can you blow things up with your gadgets?" Eagle piped up.

Wolf groaned aloud, "I knew we should've gagged him. Now, Cub, why don't you tell us your very interesting and secretive life story?"

Cub smirked-not that anyone could see him. "Not until you take the chain off my leg."

"Told you, Wolf."

"Oh, be quiet, Fox! Cub? The chain stays on until you decide to tell us. I will not have you have one of your brilliant spy plans and have you disappear as soon as the thing comes off. You are staying here, chained, until you start talking," Wolf stated.

The moment of silence that followed was broken by the sounds on feet treading lightly on the ground. There was the sound of sawing, then…

"Thanks, Alex. Those ropes were really starting to cut into my wrists. By the way, nice contacts."

"Welcome, Fox."

Heron jumped. Cub's voice had come from directly to his right.

"Cub? How the heck are you all the way over here? You're supposed to be chained to the wall on the opposite side of the room!"

"I came up with a brilliant spy plan and used magic to break the chain in half," came Cub's sarcastic reply.

" Really?" Raccoon's voice was full of awe.

"Raccoon, don't believe everything you hear. Use common logic once in a while. Jag, you were being sarcastic," Heron interrupted.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Jag replied, once again with sarcasm.

"You're welcome, Lieutenant Sarcasm," Eagle stated cheerfully.

"I would ask you how exactly you got out of the chain, but you obviously are trying to once again steer the conversation away from your past, so I'll wait on that. So the sooner you start talking about your life, the sooner, we all can get out of here," Snake demanded.

"Fine. But on day off you guys have to buy me lunch at whatever place I want to go to," Cub negotiated.

Eagle was about to protest, but Coyote cut him off and agreed.

"Let's see. You guys all know about how I came to be in the MI6, and how I first came to train here. You found all of that out after Jack was killed and I was sent to live here. And you know about all of the missions Mr. Blunt sent me on and all of the ones where Fox and I were partners. And you also know about me being the top agent with 100% success rating and whatnot. And K-unit obviously remembers all of the time they posed as backup for Fox and I, and so on and so forth. So I guess I'll start at the mission that I 'died' from?" Cub summarized.

"Finally," Wolf muttered under his breath.

"Or maybe not. If you're going to act that way, then I can just pull out a transporter and get myself out of here, leaving you locked in this storm cellar beneath C-unit's hut. And yes, I broke into here a few times," Cub responded.

"No! I….I'll be quiet," Wolf gave in.

"Ok…if I remember correctly, that was quite a hard mission that Ben and I were on. I think I'll start from the point at which Fox, K-unit and I first woke up in our cells after being kidnapped. Hmm… Let's see…" Cub started. "It all began when that guard came and dragged Ben out of the cell…"


	6. Flashback to What had Been

Chapter 6: Flashback to What had Been

_Storm Cellar beneath C-Unit's cabin_

"It all began when the guards came in and dragged Fox out of the cell," Cub started.

"Alex? Why don't you start a bit sooner and give some more background information. C-unit doesn't know this stuff," Fox interrupted.

"Fine. But the next interruption that I get without someone raising their hand first, I'm out of here. Don't say I didn't warn you," Cub replied.

Cub heard an intake of air as someone (presumably Eagle) prepared to talk. This breath was cut short by flesh hitting flesh, and Cub knew that Snake had just punched Eagle in the arm.

"Thank you, Snake. Now. Why don't I begin right before I got caught? So you probably all know how Fox and I were sent undercover to...well, I can't really tell you the name of the organization as that is highly classified. Do I need to remind you that none of this information leaves this bunker? No? Good. So Fox and I were undercover in this organization. His name was Mr. George Bently, and my name was Mr. Paul Baker.

"We were there for about 6 months until we had finally gathered all of the information we needed. Throughout our stay with that organization, we had sent the information back to MI6, so we knew there was no real rush to get out of there and we could keep our covers intact and simply disappear off of the face of the planet.

"The night before we were going to leave, I had a late night visitor…

_**Flashback**_

_Knock, knock_

"_Coming," I called out before opening the door._

"_Mr. Baker. Mr. Simmons requests your presence," a guard informed me._

"_Now?" I asked, glancing back at my half packed bag lying on my bed._

"_Yes, now."_

"_Okay," I replied and stepped out of my room, careful to close my door swiftly and make sure I heard the lock click._

_About halfway down the hallway, I felt something prick into my skin on my arm._

_When I looked down, I noticed a needle stuck in it, and the guard pumped an unknown substance into my body. _

_I tried to lash out, but the drug had already worked its way into my system, causing me to loose consciousness. _

_**End of Flashback**_

"The last thing I heard before collapsing and being grabbed/dragged away by that guard was 'oh, yes. Mr. Simmons will see you when you wake up, you little spy. Thought you could get away with it, did ya?' And then I fell unconscious," Cub finished this part of the story and asked, "Any questions?"

There was a moment's silence before:

"Way to tell it in a dramatic way, Jag. You should write a book." (this comment was made by Coyote)

"Did that really happen?" Raccoon asked.

"What about Fox? How did he get found out?" Possum wondered.

Seeing as these questions were asked almost simulateously, Cub had to take a minute to think before being able to answer them.

"Let's see…Coyote? I'd never be able to sit still long enough to write a book. Spying's in my blood. Raccoon? Of course it happened. Did you really think I'd tell you a bunch of lies? No, don't even think about answering that. And well, they kinda threw all of their employees in jail until they could figure out who was the second spy, and Eagle kind of blew his cover. Not that they weren't about to find out by themselves, but…" Cub answered.

"Hey! It's not my fault!" Eagle cried out.

"Did I say it was? I said that they were about to figure it out, and like the next day they found evidence for him being a spy," Cub refuted.

"I never knew you wore glasses, Alex," Fox commented.

Cub turned to look at him and saw that Fox was wearing his own glasses, probably also enhanced by Smithers.

Cub smiled and replied, "I never knew you wore them either. Looks like today is a day full of revelations. Now, do you want to hear the rest of the story, or no?"

This last question is directed at **you**, my readers. Review this chapter and tell me whether you would like to me to** A**. summarize the events that occurred, **B.** Explain the events in detail, **C.** Start a new story (a prequel) that explains it, or **D.** don't explain the events at all and just move on. REVIEW FOR YOUR OPINION TO BE COUNTED!


	7. Reminder to Review and state opinions!

Author's note

IMPORTANT! GET YOUR OPINIONS IN!

I am getting mixed opinions between writing what happened to Alex and writing on with the story. Please submit your opinions soon, as I would like to continue writing by tomorrow night. If you would like to state your opinion, but have no clue what I am talking about check out the bottom of the last chapter. If it stays split pretty evenly, I will create a separate story as a prequel, as to make as many people as possible happy. If this happens then I will try to update both constantly and at the same time, so as to allow people with both opinions happy. If I do create a prequel, I will have one of the other characters summarize what happened in this story, so as to not leave you out in the dark, but it will be only like a paragraph long. REVIEW TO STATE YOUR OPINION! Remember, largest majority rules!


	8. Smart Criminal Masterminds?

THANKS FOR YOUR OPINIONS! RESULTS ARE IN. I'M GOING TO SUMMARIZE VERY BREIFLY HERE, AND THEN MAKE A PREQUEL AS TO WHAT HAPPENED IN MORE DETAIL AND EXPLAINING ALL OF THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED. I HAVE FOUND THAT THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO DO IT. HOPE YOU ENJOY! (for those of you who miss-understood the question, it was asking if you wanted to learn how Alex died but didn't die, not HOW he died/didn't die)

Prequel will be called '_**Death Cuts Sharper than Knives'**_

Chapter 7: Smart Criminal Masterminds?

"And that's how I came to be here, and stuck with C-unit," Cub wrapped up as his story came to a close.

There was a silence as everyone tried to process what he had just told them.

"Let me get this straight," Coyote started. "So you and Fox got caught along with K-unit who was sent to rescue you, and then you were all tortured for information."

"Correct."

"And then, Fox almost escaped, so they decided to punish him by hurting you?"

"Yup. Don't criminals have a smart way of looking at things?" Cub asked them.

Snake sputtered out, "SMART? How is that smart?"

"Have you never noticed that spies can go forever and are perfectly willing to be punished for their actions, but as soon as you start punishing someone close to them for their actions, they quit doing things, such as escaping?" Cub asked him.

"Well, I gues-"

"Just agree with him and let me finish figuring this all out, Snake. It's easier that way. You can debate with Jag's obviously psycho mind later," Coyote interrupted. "Anyways, so you got an extra beating for Fox's actions. I'd imagine that was a pretty rough beating if you had already been having torture sessions and this was EXTRA."

"Glad you can imagine it, cause I definitely can't. I couldn't tell you whether it was rough or not. I was unconscious for all but the first 20 minutes of it," Cub replied nonchalantly.

"How can make jokes about this, Alex?" Fox asked him. "That was like the worst day of my life. They threw me back in the cell after catching me, then told me you would pay for my actions and they dragged you out. Four hours later, they bring you back, and you have like the slowest heart rate someone can have without being dead, you're barely breathing, and either about to slip into a coma or already in a coma. The only good thing that came out of it was they figured if they wanted to get more information from you, they'd better patch you up a bit."

"See? It wasn't too bad! I got the medical attention I needed, and life goes on," Cub joked once again.

"It was too so bad. You're not the one who was stuck in that cell for 7 days with a teenager who was on the verge of a coma, knowing you were responsible," Fox retorted.

"Oh…Yes! I finally got you to tell me how long I was out for. I mean, I wake up and feel utterly miserable and like I've been out for a while and you come over with your half relieved, half overly worried expression on your face and refuse to tell me how long I've been unconscious!"

"Oh shut up. I didn't want to worry you," Fox replied meekly.

"Now, if you guys are done having your fight over whose life is more miserable, can I please continue with trying to figure out the events that have occurred?" Coyote burst out.

Everyone fell silent.

"Thank you. Okay, so you got beat up and yada yada. During this time, K-unit escaped and went for help. Then, Fox and Jag managed to almost escape once again, but are total dumbos and managed to get caught again, which resulted in both of you getting shot. Am I right?" Coyote asked.

"Yes, minus the dumbos part. It's not our fault we were maximum security prisoners and had over 50 guards assigned to us," Fox corrected.

"Anyways, so they decided that Jag would be useful, so they shot him in the left shoulder and also shot him with a knock-out dart to make it seem like they had shot him in the heart and killed him. And then Fox just happened to get out of the way quick enough and managed to get shot in the arm only."

"Yup."

"And then they took Fox back to the cell and told him that Jag was dead and that he soon would be too. During this time, they transported Jag to their main site and threw him in those dungeons and kept him drugged while waiting to see if the trick would work. And then we all swoop in to save the day, find an almost broken Fox who tells us what he thinks happened. And then Possum manages to find a piece of paper in one of the offices that tells where the other site is and we go to raid that place. When we arrive there, we are just in time to witness the explosion of it blowing up. Jag blew it up because he had been finally told their plan of switching his allegiances and figured he should blow it up so they could all go rot in hell. And because of his dumb luck, he manages to get out of there before the thing blows its top. And then he wakes up like 3 days later in the middle of the woods and makes it back to London, only to find that everyone thinks he is dead, and has the awesome chance of startling Blunt really bad before fainting in Blunt's office. Did I get that right?" Coyote asked after taking a breath.

"Yea, you got the gist of it. I'm hungry, so I'm going to dinner now," Cub replied before standing up and turning the lights on and climbing the ladder into C-unit's cabin.

Behind him he heard Eagle and Raccoon crying out as the bright light hit their unaccustomed eyes.

Cub chuckled and pulled out his cell phone and sent one text message.

_ABD knows the truth. _

He then waited for K and C Units while yelling at them that they'd be late for dinner.

When the soldiers all filed out and finally started walking with Cub to the mess hall, they were thoughtful, thinking about everything they had been told, and wondering how the heck Cub still knew how to smile after being through all of that.

Their thoughts were broken by the sound of a cell phone ringing. Cub immediately reached for his pockets before he realized it was not his, but Fox's that was ringing.

"Hello?" Fox said into his phone.

Everyone was trying to listen in on the call to figure out who it was, but could only hear one side of it.

"Oh! Hi Mrs. Jones."

(pause)

"Of course. I'll be there."

(pause)

"Okay. Will do."

(pause)

"You know I do everything humanly possible when it comes to that."

(pause)

"Bye."

Fox clicked his phone shut and noticed everyone staring at him.

"Well, it seems as if this visit will be cut short. I have to 'update my account' at the bank tomorrow."

"What? Why can't you put off updating your account until later?" Raccoon whined. "You're the only one who can actually get Jag to do stuff that he doesn't want to. It won't be any fun around here now that Jag's reverted to his old self."

Fox raised his eyebrows, "Cub and not fun do not belong in the same sentence. Cub always has fun…whether its only fun for him, or its fun for you too. Anyways, Cub won't be around to spoil this 'fun' anyways. His accounts due for an update too."

"Seriously! Just update your stupid bank accounts later!" Raccoon whined.

"Raccoon, calm down," Heron commanded. "MI6 headquarters is at a bank, so the updating part is just a cover to get the spies down to the bank without anyone listening in on phone calls getting suspicious. The two of them are going on a mission together."

"Just like old times," Fox whispered to Cub, who in turn grinned broadly at the thought.

"Just like old times," he agreed.

But Cub wasn't thinking about this the rest of the way to the Mess hall. He was thinking about what Fox meant by 'You know I do everything humanly possible when it comes to that'. What he didn't know was that Mrs. Jones had been pleading with Fox to protect him (Cub) at all costs.

Cub was shaken out of his thoughts when they arrived at the Mess hall.

As he sat down, he started to think about what he would do to C unit and K unit as revenge for when he got back.

'Oh yes,' he thought with a smirk. 'Fox's right. I have my own fun all of the time. It's just not necessarily fun for everyone else, as they will find out…'


	9. Easy Surveillance? I don't think so

Sorry about the delay, but I just got power back after 6 days of having no electricity.

Chapter 8: Easy Surveillance? I Don't Think So

_Royal and General Bank_

"Alex. Ben. How nice of you to join me today," Mrs. Jones started from where she was sitting across the desk from them. "Unfortunately, Mr. Blunt is down with the flu today and so I will have to brief you on your mission and approve of your gadgets along with answering your questions. What a shame."

Mrs. Jones could not help but let a smile out at her last sentence.

"Of course, Mr. Blunt really wanted to be here today to brief you, but he got sick shortly after dinner yesterday, which I might add was brought up by Smithers," Mrs. Jones continued.

Alex smirked, "Ahh. Good old Smithers."

Ben let a sly smile slip through as well, "That is a shame, Mrs. Jones. May I ask if you had just HAPPENED to visit Mr. Smithers shortly before he brought up Mr. Blunt's dinner?"

"I might've HAPPENED to stop by his office to check up on him somewhere around that time," Mrs. Jones answered in a general way.

Mrs. Jones watched as both men relaxed slightly in their chairs. This was, of course, not obvious to the untrained eye, but Mrs. Jones was far from untrained.

"Anyways, you are being sent on a mission to Australia. A new terrorist organization has popped up there, and stands as a threat to Britain. We do not know how, but they seem to have gained an enormous amount of power and influence over night. From the little bits of intelligence that has been gathered, we have concluded that their plan is to take over the world. Yes, I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but they do have several high quality missiles. We are unsure of how they have acquired these, but that is not top on the list to find out. This will be, as Mr. Blunt has told me, and I quote 'an easy surveillance mission. Just go in and gather information. You'll never be in any danger' end quote."

Alex and Ben chuckled a bit at this.

"No danger my foot," Ben responded.

"Yea. Since when has a surveillance mission turned out to be 'easy' and with 'no danger'?" Alex added.

"Well, yea," Mrs. Jones agreed. "Even Mr. Blunt knows this; otherwise, why else would he send his top two agents on this mission?"

"Good point," Ben agreed.

"Anyways, here is a folder for each of you. In it is a detailed copy of the mission itself, what your covers are, and basically everything you need to know. If you read through it tonight, you can always call me and ask any questions you might have tomorrow before your flight. You will be traveling via Continental Airlines and will be stopping in Miami, Florida, before catching another flight that will take you directly to Australia. While in Miami, you will have a two day layover so that you can get rid of your jet lag and be fresher for when your mission starts. That is all," Mrs. Jones concluded. "Just don't mention the two day layover to Mr. Blunt. I'm not positive that he'd agree on that matter."

Ben and Alex shared a small smile before bidding her good-day and setting off for Ben's house.

Being a minor, and living at BB, Alex didn't have his own place to crash at, so it had been decided that he would sleep on the couch at Ben's apartment.

"I still can't get used to seeing you with brown hair and green eyes," Ben commented while unlocking his apartment door.

"Well, you better get used to it, because you'll be seeing it for a long time," Alex responded before pushing past him and into the apartment.

"Well, I guess I'll have that 2 day layover of peaceful rest time to get used to it."

"Yea. That will be really nice. Just quiet relaxing time on the Miami beaches," Alex agreed.


	10. Unexpected Circumstances

Chapter 9: Unexpected Circumstances

_Unknown location_

"There are two MI6 British spies coming through the airport today. They are staying here in Miami for 2 days before leaving to go elsewhere. I want them intercepted and brought in so that I can have a chat with them. We have the picture of one of them. We ran his alias name through the databases, and got another name which we were able to run a check on and find a picture for him. The other man does not exist. He is not in any databases or anything. He seems to have popped up randomly in England two years ago. These agents are partners and will be communicating through the standard watch communicators. To locate this second agent, you will need to be watching every security tape and have your eyes peeled for someone who is nonchalantly talking into a watch. Remember, these men are not amateurs. Do not underestimate them. You are dismissed."

_Airport in Miami, Florida, USA_

"Whew!" Ben exclaimed. "I am so glad we got off of that plane. I've really never cared for flying that much, and this jet lag is NOT helping."

"Aren't you in a grumpy mood, _Jake_," Alex replied with smirk.

"Ha-ha, very funny, _Will_," Ben retorted.

"Hey, it's not like I picked our aliases. I would've chosen a much better name than this."

"Whatever. Mr. Blunt gave us this mission, and we're expected to see it through the end. Now, here's our first test. Will we get past immigration? I mean, we do have fake passports. Plus, I've heard rumors of this airport being run by the CIA. I say we split up and meet each other at the hotel later. You go that way and go through one of the lines at that extreme end, and I'll go through the other side," Ben instructed Alex.

Ben didn't wait for a response, but simply melted into the crowd. Behind him, Alex did the same.

Ben was feeling fully confident when he handed the attendant his passport. His confidence failed when the attendant scanned it about 4 times before peering at it very carefully.

"Excuse me sir for a minute. I'll be right back," the attendant stated before taking his passport and walking over to a man who had been standing on the edge of the crowd and giving the passport to the man.

Both of them walked back over to Ben.

"Excuse me, sir," the new man started. "There seems to be a slight problem with your passport. Please step this way so that we can get this sorted out."

Ben nodded, not wanting to attract too much attention and began to follow the man while keeping his eyes peeled for Alex.

He sighed with relief when he saw Alex standing in front of a window, fixing his hair in the reflection. Ben was sure that Alex could care less about what his hair looked like. He was pretty sure that Alex was really watching the proceedings in the reflection, while giving the façade of fixing his hair.

"Don't worry, Ben," came the voice from the communication device in his ear. "That guy is CIA. My guess is that they knew you were coming, and Mr. Byrne decided to have a chat with you. I'm pretty sure they switched your passport out for a fake one. Just, whatever you do, do not answer any questions that pertain to me. My guess is that they searched our names and got a picture for you and drew a blank for me. They most likely are trying to figure out which person in this crowd is your partner. Just say 'classified' as answers to those questions. I'll answer them when I show up at their headquarters."

Ben 'scratched' his nose, "Okay, Alex. Stay safe. You're sure this guy is trustworthy and is definitely CIA?"

"Yes. I give you permission to beat me to the pulp if that guy turns out to be a terrorist. I've worked with him before," Alex replied, now walking towards the front doors, eager to be out of the building now that he was sure he would be spotted for talking into a watch, no matter how discreetly he did it.

Ben was silent for a moment because he was watching the CIA man who was leading him to who knows where. The CIA man had a cell phone out and was talking almost too quietly for Ben to hear.

"Yea. I got the agent. I'm bringing him to HQ…How should I know if he suspects what we are doing? It's not like I can ask him…still no sign of the partner, but I can't really be looking if I'm keeping my eye on this agent…Really? You've located him? ...Have you nabbed him yet? ...Why not? ...ARE YOU SERIOUS? You let him walk out of the building? Pull every agent you can and scour the streets for him. He's most likely been in contact with the guy following me and knows that his partner has been compromised. Question is: what is he going to do about it? ...No, I don't expect you to know the answer to that question… I'm coming to help. Get some other agent to come and get this guy and escort him. Our unnamed agent who appeared 2 years ago is a higher priority than someone who has actually lived… Be there in 2."

The CIA agent ended the call and turned to look at the MI6 agent. His face was impassive, but the CIA agent had a good idea that this agent had just overheard the entire conversation.

"George! Come over here! Our friend here had a slight issue with his passport. Can you handle this for me? I have a meeting I need to be at and before I go, I have to catch up with another friend," the CIA agent called to another man who was passing by.

"Sure thing. I'll make sure he gets right where he's supposed to," George responded.

During this exchange between the two men, Ben talked to Alex. "They're switching the agent whose taking me wherever. Your buddy took a phone call and is really mad that some other agents apparently allowed you to walk out of the building without apprehending you. I'll keep you posted."

And so, Ben found himself following a new face, but that of someone who was also a CIA agent.

Within a moment, Ben and George reached a parking garage, and found a black limo with darkly tinted windows waiting. George opened the door for Ben and gestured that he go through first.

Ben complied and slid into the seat. Moments later, he was followed by George, who slid in next to him.

The door closed, and the locks automatically clicked.

"Now that there's no way for you to escape, why don't you tell me a bit about your partner? Let's start with his name…if you don't want to answer these questions, fine. Just know that bad things can and will happen to you," George told Ben, before gesturing towards a man who, up until now, had been hidden in the shadows. "His name's Blake Lewinsky."


	11. Surveillance and CounterSurveillance

Chapter 10: Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance

_The Streets of Miami_

Alex walked out the doors of the airport after watching Ben disappear from sight. He was standing around, waiting for a taxi when he heard Ben's report on what the CIA agent's phone call was about. After gathering that information, Alex figured it would be easier to put his plan in motion if he disappeared onto the streets and forced the agents to look for him, rather than stand around in the last place he had been known to be in.

Once on the streets of Miami, Alex just walked around randomly, using every aspect of counter surveillance that he knew. After about four minutes, he noticed a tail who had just spotted him. Alex changed his pace size and ever so slightly walked a bit faster. Then, he ducked down the nearest alley way and kept taking random streets. He figured that most of the CIA agents in the area must be out looking for him, because he lost several different tails, and each time found a new agent following him.

Once at the city's central park, Alex slowed down his pace and started walking down one of the trails that lead through the woods.

As soon as Alex found a clearing, he stepped off the path and hesitated in the open area. Something felt wrong. His instincts were screaming 'Run! Danger!' but he couldn't see anyone.

Just the same, he tensed himself for a fight. Something sinister was out there, and he wanted to be ready.

He didn't have to wait long. Two minutes later, he heard a twig snap, right before 10 guys ran out of the forest and surrounded him.

As soon as Alex saw the symbol that was sewn onto all of their sleeves, he sighed and cursed his luck.

It was the symbol of the terrorist organization that he was supposed to be working undercover in while in Australia. Obviously, someone had betrayed him.

One man stepped forward, "Hello, agent. Let me tell you how things are going to run down. You're going to come with us or be shot. It's not really of that much consequence to us. After all, our bosses don't know of your existence, so it's not like we'll get in trouble for shooting you. If you really want to know, this is a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. You gave yourself away as an agent while in airport while you were talking to your buddy on that stupid watch. We just happened to see you, and well, we think you'll be a great asset to our organization. With the kind of information that's in your head, that could bring our organization to the top very quickly. What do you say? The easy way or the hard way?"

Alex pretended to think for a moment before answering, "Oh! I'm sorry. Were you talking to me? I wasn't really paying attention. Your speech bored me after the third sentence. Would you mind repeating it?"

"You have one more chance to surrender before we take you by force or shoot you."

"Hmm… all of those methods are so dull. Can't you dumb-heads come up with something original for once?" Alex taunted.

"I'm going to love getting information out of that head of yours. With an attitude like yours, my bosses will allow me to be…forceful," the man replied with a smile. "Yes, so much fun. Ready for long and painful torture?"

"Are you still talking? I'm sorry but please shut up. Your voice is soooo boring. Do you plan on talking me to death or something?"

A look of rage crossed the man's face.

"Men. Take him down," he commanded the nine other men who had their guns drawn.

They all smiled sinister smiles and tightened the circle around Alex.

One man lunged at Alex, but Alex got him knocked out within a 10 second span.

Alex stuck up his fists and asked, "So whose ready to become chopped liver and get beaten by a guy half their age?"

This ticked two men off who both rushed forward. This fight took more like 30 seconds, but neither landed a punch on Alex before he had knocked them out.

Soon there were only 3 men left. The leader and two other men who were more experienced than the others who had given in to Alex's taunts. The leader hung back as the other two engaged Alex.

About a full minute into this fight, Alex was getting slightly worried. Every one of his punches were blocked. Three minutes into the fight and only a few punches and kicks had landed on these men, while he was just barely blocking some of the punches away from vital points, and he was growing weaker. He still hadn't had any time to recover from his jet lag, and his attack was beginning to slow. Suddenly, he felt his legs being swept from underneath him, and he fell heavily to the ground. With surprise, he realized that he must've knocked one of the men out, as only one guard and the leader were standing over him. Their guns were pointing at him. The leader clicked the safety off of his gun. There was no visible escape.

"You fight well. Perhaps you will cooperate and we can train you further. I'm sure you'll be happy to switch sides with a little bit of...a push in the right direction. Before that happens, though, we do need that information, and we need to make sure that you don't escape while we take you. After all, badly wounded men have a harder time of getting away."

The man pulled the trigger. A shot echoed through the woods.


	12. Nothing is Simple

Chapter 11: Nothing is Simple

_The man pulled the trigger. A shot echoed through the woods._

Alex rolled, attempting to get out of the way of the speeding bullet. He cried out as he felt a burning pain spread across his body. When he finally got the pain under control, he realized that he was lying face down. Someone cursed in the background, and he felt himself being lifted up. Whoever it was was holding him over one arm, the other hand holding a gun to Alex's head.

Foggily, Alex heard the person say, "Drop your weapons or I shoot him."

"No," came another voice, coming from somewhere in front of them. "You won't shoot him. You need him."

Another shot rang out, and Alex once again cried out. Now it felt like his arm and leg were on fire.

"Who says I won't shoot him? I just did-twice. My employer won't care if he's damaged or not."

"Let him go. Either that or I blow your brains out. Do you know what type of weapon I hold in my hands? I see from the fear on your face that you do. Just think of what might happen if I accidently pulled the trigger."

Alex lifted his eyes. He had worked out that he was probably being held by the terrorist leader, and before him stood a CIA agent. How long had that guy been standing there?

"We can stand here all day and watch as he bleeds out for all I care. I do not care about your empty threats."

"Empty?" the CIA agent asked incredulous. "I have already carried this threat out on your partner. What makes you so sure I won't do it again?"

"Fine. I will drop him, but I will keep my gun trained on him. If you try to shoot me, just remember that I have an excellent reaction time, and will be able to pull the trigger before your weapon kills me."

"Deal. Now put him on the ground and leave."

Without warning, the support behind Alex disappeared, and he fell heavily to the ground. He grunted in pain as he landed on his injured arm.

In the distance, a voice could be heard, "I thought I told you to place him on the ground, not drop him like a sack of potatoes."

As the dark edges receded from Alex's vision, the voices became clearer and nearer.

"He's on the ground, what do you care? And now, I will make my leave."

Judging by the voice, Alex swiped his legs around and knocked the man down. One final hit to a pressure point had him knocked out.

Alex lay back on the ground, situated on his side, and pushed the pain away. He could feel the trickle of blood coming out of his leg and his arm, and knew that he'd have to staunch the flow.

A pair of hands gently rolled him onto his back.

"Hey. You okay? Listen, I've already called for back-up. They should be here in a few minutes. Just hang tight, and we'll get someone to look at those bullet wounds. Then, there's someone who would like to meet you," the CIA agent told Alex.

Alex filed away the information he was given.

"You really shouldn't be so trusting. I can't have you ruining my plans, now can I?" Alex asked, right before hitting one of the man's pressure points and effectively knocking him out.

Alex rolled the man off of his body and stood up, assessing the damage that the bullets had done to his body. He was surprised to find that although he had been hit on his upper arm and upper leg, the bullets had all but missed him. On millimeter farther away, and they would have completely missed. The bullets had only grazed his skin, leaving a thin line bleeding, but nothing serious. He quickly ripped off two pieces of his shirt and tied them around the wounds before taking off into the woods.

(PAGE BREAK! NORMALLY THIS WOULD BE A NEW CHAPTER, BUT I FEEL THAT YOU GUYS DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING TO BEN WHILE ALL OF THIS IS TAKING PLACE!)

Ben sat quietly for the entire trip. He had no clue who this Lewinsky character was, but from the way he had been introduced Ben got the vibe that no one messed with him.

Somewhere along the journey (Ben didn't know how far they were taking him, so he couldn't judge whether it was near the end or the beginning), George got a phone call.

"George Scott."

….

"I see. And what was there when you got there?"

….

"And no sign of anyone else?"

….

"Blood…interesting. Is Harrison okay?"

….

"That's good. Keep me updated. I'll let Lewinsky take over my job and come there."

….

"Very good." And George snapped his phone closed.

"What was that about?" Lewinsky asked.

George stared at Ben for a long time, studying him.

"Okay. I'm sure it's no breach of security for this guy to hear it, and you'll need to hear this information, Lewinsky," George replied, indicating at Ben.

"Good. So what's going on?" Lewinsky prompted.

"Well, it seems that this guy's partner somehow managed to evade all of our men. Then, either Harrison managed to follow him or found him by accident in the middle of the park's woods. From what we can tell from the scene, the partner got attacked by a group of guys. As it turns out, they're from a terrorist organization that recently popped up. A few minutes ago Harrison called for back-up but did not explain the situation. Our guys got there and this was what they pieced together from the clues."

"From the clues? What happened to Harrison?" Lewinsky asked, slightly worried.

"Well, when the back-up got there, they found a very interesting scene. A group of 10 guys all lying on the ground unmoving. 9 of them were unconscious. One of them was dead, and judging by the bullet, he was shot by Harrison. They were all dressed the same-in black. Only one of their weapons was fired, and it was fired twice. The interesting thing is that no one there had any bullet wounds-save the one shot by Harrison."

"How odd. Did the guy miss his mark?"

"It doesn't seem that way. Harrison was found nearby the guy who owned the gun that had been fired, unconscious. He didn't have any marks on him, and it seems someone knocked him out by hitting a pressure point. Right next to where Harrison was found, the grass was matted down, and there were two small pools of blood. But no sign of anyone else. To be honest, we don't even know if the partner was there. But there was definitely someone else there-not just because of the blood. Harrison was unmarked, but the other guys looked as though they had been through some sort of fight," George sighed. "I hate all of this uncertainty. This was supposed to be simple. Grab the guy from the photo, and his partner. Bring them to HQ. Done. Cut and dry mission."

"Sorry about that," Ben interjected. "But when dealing with my partner, you'll learn that nothing is as simple as it seems at first."

Neither showed any signs of even hearing Ben speak.

"And then there's you. The guy from the photo that seems to know more than is plausible. What's your name?" George asked.

Ben studied him before answering, "They didn't tell you?"

"In our industry, appearance is more important than names. They just showed us a photo. Find first, then start asking questions."

Ben nodded at this answer, "Now here's the thing. Do you want to know the name on my passport, the name of the guy that I'm pretending to be, or the name on my birth certificate?"

"Let's just start with something easy. We don't need to go into the complex information yet. The name on your birth certificate."

"Ben Daniels. You know, it's probably a good thing that you guys have me and my partner is off who knows where vs. the other way around, because he would've had a much more complicated answer," Ben replied with a wry smile.

"How so?" Lewinsky asked, curious.

"When he shows up, you can ask him. If he tells you, then you can know, but if he doesn't, then sorry. Right now he's in control of this entire situation, and I would hate to get on his bad side for messing things up."

"You're sure he's going to show up?" George Scott wondered.

"Of course. There's really no reason for you guys to be out looking for him. He'll just disappear into thin air and then show up when you least expect it."

"You talk as though from experience."

"I do," Ben replied, thinking of how he had thought Alex was dead only to have him pop up two years later. "If he doesn't show his face by this time tomorrow, then that means that something terribly wrong has happened and he is most likely dead."


	13. Wait and See

Chapter 12:

For probably the first time in his life, Alex had a shopping list.

Black Hoodie

Black Pants

Black Gloves

Black Sunglasses

Black Baseball Hat

Band-Aids (large)

Neosporin

Coffee

Energy Bar

Advil

The first thing Alex went and got was the coffee. He needed the caffeine in order to stay awake. The jet lag was really killing him.

Half of an hour later, Alex was wearing his new clothes and was not falling asleep on his feet. Time to put the operation into action.

(PAGE BREAK…PAGE BREAK…PAGE BREAK….PAGE BREAK)

"Here we are, Agent Daniels," Lewinsky stated as he opened the door and stepped out. As Ben stepped out into the harsh sunlight, he almost laughed at the name of the building. Centurion International Advertising. CIA.

"Way to not give away the location of your HQ," Ben commented.

"Hey, you'd be surprised at how many people would never think of that," George interrupted.

During the last few minutes of the drive, George had gotten a phone call saying to not worry about coming out to look for the unknown MI6 agent, but to report to HQ and be there as back-up in case someone spotted the agent.

"This way, Daniels," Lewinsky called out, going through the front doors of the building. Ben quickly followed. He was surprised at the way that Lewinsky just waved a greeting at the receptionist and was allowed to pass. Things were obviously done a lot more different here than at the Royal and General.

After entering an elevator and going up 4 flights, Lewinsky knocked on a random door. The name listed on it was 'Joe Byrne'.

"Come in," called a voice from inside.

Ben recalled that this man was the head of the CIA, and realized even more differences between MI6 and CIA. Their head director actually sounded human.

Lewinsky opened the door to a room painted tan. It wasn't the most colorful color there was, but it certainly beat the dull gray of Blunt's office. A man about in his early forties was sitting behind a desk that wasn't messy, but had a few stacks of papers and folders on it. The curtains were drawn back and allowed some natural light in through the window.

The man from the desk looked up and smiled at Ben. 'Blunt and Byrne were definitely polar opposites,' Ben decided.

"Have a seat, Agent Daniels. You too, Lewinsky. By the way, thank you for seeing a British agent without freaking and doing something drastic," Byrne stated with a sly smile.

"In my defense, there was an important political woman about to do an anti-British speech at the time," Lewinsky stated, not noticing the sly smile becoming bigger as he took bait. "Daniels. What would you do if one of your important politicians was about to make an anti-American speech and you were in the group assigned to protect her. Then, you get a tip that somebody's going to assassinate her. While keeping an eye on your informer, you see a CIA agent walk into the area that the informer is in. Five minutes later, the place blows up. Then you see this same CIA agent walking away, trying to blend into the crowds. Wouldn't you pick the agent up and ask him a few questions?"

Ben thought about it and concluded, "Probably. But seeing how just one person thinks that there might be an assassination attempt, I would probably just have a chat with the agent, see what he said, and then check up on the story to see if it's true. Why? What did you end up doing?"

Lewinsky looked down at the floor as Mr. Byrne stated, "See? But don't kill yourself over it. It was one little mistake, and you already got reprimanded. And I can see that you actually listened to what I was telling you."

Comprehension dawned on Ben's face, "Was this what George was talking about when he introduced you?"

Lewinsky looked up, "Yea. He was in the group that day and still will not let me live it down."

"Anyways, why don't we get off of this depressing subject and onto something else? Like, your partner for example, Agent Daniels," Byrne interrupted.

Ben cut his gaze towards the man, "What about him?"

Mr. Byrne studied the MI6 agent in front of him. Over the past few minutes, he had watched Ben relax. His shoulders had become less tense, and he had almost been at ease. Now, Ben was tense once more, and something was radiating through his posture. It seemed to be letting off an almost protective sense of being, but in a brotherly/fatherly way. 'What's the relationship between the two of them?' Mr. Byrne wondered.

"Well, I thought we could start with his name," Joe Byrne asked cautiously.

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you that. Why don't you wait for him to show up and tell you himself?" Ben replied.

"Why can't you tell me?" Byrne asked, slightly confused.

"My partner told me not to. He is, after all, my superior."

Not wanting the MI6 agent in front of him clam up completely, Byrne tactfully changed the subject.

"You said he can explain when he gets here. Do you think he's going to be caught by one of the agents out looking for him?"

Ben chuckled, "Of course not. He may be young, but he's far from inexperienced. I would say that right about now, no one has seen him since the first few minutes outside of the airport, am I right? Well, except for maybe…Was it Harrison?... Whatever the guy found in the park's name was. No, he'll come here all on his own. One minute he'll just appear out of thin air like he always does. He has a way of always being in control of the situation. He'll be here before this time tomorrow. If he's not, then there's no point in continuing to look for him. In that case, all you'll find is a dead body."

Byrne and Lewinsky took a minute to digest this information.

"You speak as though you know him very well; as if you've worked together a lot in the past. But you haven't had a partner on a mission since, well, Alex Rider was killed," Byrne said, all the while seeing how the MI6 agent would react.

He was not disappointed. Ben flinched and went rigidly tense, his face totally closed off. "I think you should wait for him to show up and then you'll get your answers." The voice that said this was almost mechanical.

Byrne and Lewinsky shared a glance.

There was something strange going on here, and he was determined to find out what it was.


	14. Hooded Figures

*Disclaimer: In case you hadn't noticed, I don't own Alex Rider or any other character that comes from the series. I'm just using them in my original plot line.*

Chapter 13

Ed Shulsky felt like screaming in frustration. It had been simple enough to catch MI6 Agent Daniels, but his partner had given them the slip in the airport. Even the security cameras only showed a few blurs of brown hair. Not really enough to go on.

Almost every available CIA agent had been combing the streets of Miami for two hours and they had not found any trace of the agent. Well, they had gotten the request for back-up from Harrison, and then later an anonymous phone call from an untraceable number about the little scene, but other than that, nothing.

Harrison had finally woken up, but couldn't tell them anything. The agent had apparently gotten shot twice, once in the leg and once in the arm. Other than that, Harrison could only tell them the guy had brown hair and that he would hate to ever get on the agent's bad side.

To top that off, Agent Daniels refused to say a single word about his partner. The only thing that LEWINSKY had gotten out of him was that the agent would come to the CIA headquarters at some point in time on his own and that no one would be able to find him unless he wanted them to.

That was what LEWINSKY got out of him. The reason Lewinsky was put with that job was because of the rumors of him being violent and doing anything to get information went ahead of him and he could easily scare people into talking.

Ed really wanted to meet this Ben Daniels. Shulsky was certain that he would never meet an agent quite like Daniels. Mr. Byrne had informed Ed that Daniel's former partner, Alex Rider, had rubbed off on Mr. Daniels. This made Ed all the more curious about Mr. Daniels, as Ed had worked with the late Alex Rider before.

'No, don't think of him,' Shulsky commanded himself. 'It will only make you mad again.'

Shulsky still couldn't believe how MI6 could've been so ruthless as to use a boy in the ways that they had. And now that boy was dead. He hadn't even seen his sixteenth birthday. And MI6 still showed no emotion, no remorse.

Ed was surprised when he looked up to see that he was already at the CIA headquarters. He had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed. Ed Shulsky walked through the front doors and waved at the receptionist before passing through a door and down the stairs.

After checking that the ten men they had found in the park were secure in cells for questioning, Ed continued towards Mr. Byrne's office to give his report in.

Halfway there, he found a note lying on the ground. Curious, he picked up the note and opened it.

Ed Shulsky-

Long time, no chat! Well, I would advise you to hurry to Byrne's office.

We can chat there. And talk about ghosts from your past.

Ed was really confused now, but hurried towards Mr. Byrne's office.

Just as he rounded the bend, he saw a figure all dressed in black appear out of seemingly thin air and step up to Joe Byrne's office door. The figure raised his hand to knock, and Ed sidled up behind him.

"Don't turn around or try anything," Ed commanded while pressing his gun to the man's hooded head.

"I won't," came the reply. The voice sounded oddly young. "But I could if I wanted to."

Ed wisely didn't reply to that and instead ordered, "Knock on the door and when you hear a reply, open it and walk in."

The figure snorted, "So you stopped me from doing something, just to press a gun to my head, threaten me, and tell me to do what I was planning on doing anyways? Interesting. I guess you got my message."

"Knock."

"Ok." The figure replied and knocked.

'Come in' was faintly heard from inside the door.

The figure opened the door and stepped in.

"Who is this, Ed?" Mr. Byrne asked me.

"He's a guy who left me a very strange message and who I found outside your door. I have no clue who he is," Ed replied.

"Why do people always find it necessary to talk about me as if I'm not here?" the figure asked.

"I don't know. Maybe you're just too unimportant for them to give you a second thought," Ben replied to the figure.

"Obviously not," the figure shot back. "Who had 43 CIA agents combing the streets for them while you got an escort of two?"

"Touché." Agent Daniels replied.

Mr. Byrne had been watching this conversation take place and interrupted, "Yes, well, why don't you take a seat? I'm going to guess that you are Mr. Daniels' partner, seeing how the two of you know each other."

The figure sat and replied with a simple "yes".

"Shulsky, Lewinsky, why don't you grab some chairs and move over here while we get some info out of these two."

The two complied and soon the three men were facing Ben Daniels and his partner.

"So, first off, we know you're Agent Daniels, but what's your name?" Mr. Byrne questioned them.

"Agent Ryan Santos," came the reply from deep within the hooded face.

Mr. Byrne caught a hint of amusement on Agent Daniels' face and knew that he was missing something.

"What's your real name?" Shulsky asked, having noticed the same thing the head of CIA noticed.

"What makes you so sure that my name isn't Ryan Santos?"

"I thought you told us that your partner would explain everything once he showed up," Lewinsky said to Daniels.

"I did say that. And he will… eventually," Ben Daniels said with a smirk.

"Fine. My name is not Ryan Santos. It's Bernard Smith," the hooded figure answered once again.

This time Ben Daniels couldn't help but snort at that statement.

Lewinsky gave 'Ryan Santos/Bernard Smith' a withering look that said 'obviously not, now tell us the truth'.

"Maybe my name is Greg Purkis?"

"Or Keon Backer?"

"Or Will Greenfield?"

"Or Tom Hankensis?"

"Or Jonathon Vik?"

This went on for a couple of minutes before Ben Daniels couldn't help it any longer and started silently laughing. The three CIA men did not look amused.

"Or Kealie Jones?"

"Or Peter Hubgrub?"

"Or Trent Michaels?"

"Or Alex Rider?"

"Or Joe Smith?"

"WAIT! STOP!" Shulsky practically yelled. "What was that name you said?"

"Which one?" the hooded figure questioned.

"One of the last few you said."

"What did I say?"

"I don't know. You just said some name that is familiar to me. I just can't think of what you said."

"Was it Joe Smith?" the hooded figure asked.

"No."

"Was it Trent Michaels?"

"No!" Lewinsky stated, at the end of his patience. "You know perfectly well which name it is!"

"But you obviously don't."

Mr. Byrne just put his head in his hands. This was turning out to be a long day.

"Fine," the hooded figure replied while reaching up and pulling off his hood. "My name is Alex Rider. Nice to see you guys again."


	15. Out of Character Jet Lag

Chapter 14:

In the back of his mind, Ben faintly realized that Alex had taken the dye out of his hair and had gotten rid of the colored contacts and now looked like his normal self. Ben might have made some comment about that, but he was too busy laughing at the reactions of the CIA men. Even their head, Joe Byrne, had his mouth dropped open like a fish.

Alex just sat there smirking at the sight. Ben could tell that Alex was trying not to laugh, and he wondered how long Alex could keep it up.

"Wow," Alex piped up. "I never knew government agents to show any emotion at all, let alone sit there gaping like a fish. You know, if you stay that way for too long, a bee's going to come and fly into your mouth."

This seemed to break the spell, and all three mouths snapped shut and Ben regained his composure and adopted a blank face once again.

"But…how?" Shulsky questioned. "I mean, the last time I see you is when you're about to be launched into outer space, and then I hear all of these rumors about a teenage super-spy, and then suddenly, I hear that you die from being shot and blown up by Scorpia who wanted revenge. And now, here you are."

"I can't believe MI6 kept this covered up for so long!" Byrne exclaimed. "I mean, we did hear reports about some young spy prodigy who made his way up to the top spot, but there was never anything about him being under aged!"

"Well, when I got my new identity, MI6 realized that they couldn't have one under-aged spy die, and then a week later another spy with the same age pop up and be just as great, so according to my new identity, I am 24 years old right now. Not 17. And as to how, well, I was shot with a blank by Scorpia, not that they would ever admit it, because they wanted me to join their side. So then they drugged me and took me to their other location, which I later blew up with making my escape. I mean, I didn't exactly mean to blow it up, but the fire was bigger than I expected, and there was more explosives there, so….KABOOM happened," Alex replied with a shrug.

While the three CIA agents were taking this in, Ben turned to Alex.

"I'm surprised in you! I'd have expected you to sit here for hours not telling them anything until they would finally start asking yes-or-no questions to which you wouldn't respond to either!"

"And I would've guessed that this moment would not turn you into some weirdo. Seriously, Ben. I don't know who you were at that moment. You are acting so out of your normal character," Alex flashed back.

"I think it's the jet lag," Ben replied stifling a yawn.

While they were carrying on this conversation, Mr. Byrne had picked up his phone and had issued some sort of instructions.

"Ok, Agent Daniels and Alex, can you come this way for a moment? I have some things I need to attend to. I'll prepare two of our crash rooms for you guys so that you can sleep and get rid of your jet lag. We can talk more in the morning once you're not falling asleep on your feet," Mr. Byrne instructed them.

Alex knew this last part was directed at him, but made no note that he noticed that. Instead he commented, "Aww….Is little Ben tired? Does little Ben need a nap? Do you want me to tuck you in with your teddy bear?"

Ben glowered at him half-heartedly, "Oh shut up. You'll regret saying that when halfway to our destination you fall over dead asleep and I'm forced to carry you the rest of the way. You know, I'm not exactly that coordinated of a person, and I tend to trip over my feet a lot, and so if I just happened to be carrying you, and I tripped, well, that wouldn't feel so good, now would it?"

"Oh shut up," was the only thing that Alex could think of in reply.

This was when Ben realized just how tired Alex really was. Ben had not ever heard Alex at a loss for words nor had he ever lost a word battle.

"Come on, let's go get some sleep," Ben said with a fatherly smile, motioning for Alex to stand.

Mr. Byrne led the way out of his office, with Ben and Alex following. Before they had completely left the room, Lewinsky called out in an uncertain voice, "Alex?"

Alex and Ben turned toward him and prompted him to continue.

"I was just wondering where we stood because, well, you know. Because of the incident in Egypt with the-"

Alex interrupted him, "I know what you mean. But it's seriously ok. I probably would've done the same thing, or something similar if I was in your shoes. Let's just forget the incident ever happened, ok?"

A relieved look came over Lewinsky's face, "Yea, ok. Sounds good."

"Now, if you'll excuse us, Lewinsky, I think I need to get Alex to sleep. The jet lag has most certainly caught up with him," Ben interrupted, barely holding back his own yawn.

Alex mumbled something incoherent before walking out of the room with Ben following.

The pair followed Mr. Byrne until he stopped outside a doorway.

"Sorry, I need to go take care of a few things and get one of the rooms unlocked, is it ok if you guys just hang out in here for a minute?"

"Sure," Ben replied and steered Alex into the room.

Inside it looked like a lounge. Ben led Alex to one of the couches and they both sat down. Without a second thought, Alex put his feet out to the side and curled up with his head on Ben's lap.

"Nice to know I'm your personal pillow," Ben joked, before realizing that Alex was already asleep.

Ben just snorted and leaned his head back on the back of the couch, closing his eyes.

'Just for one minute…' he thought.


	16. Of Sleep and Secrets

Chapter 15:

"Ok guys, Mr. Byrne asked me to show…you…," Shulsky stopped mid-sentence as realized that the two he was talking to were fast asleep on the couch. Ben had simply leaned his head back, but Alex had decided to lay down and use Ben's lap as a pillow. All in all, it was a very cute sight.

Unsure of whether he should wake them or not, Shulsky went in search of Joe Byrne. \

He found Mr. Byrne in the café, getting himself some coffee.

"Hey, Mr. Byrne?" he asked tentatively.

"Yes, Ed?"

"Umm…I have a question."

"Yes?"

"Well, Alex and Mr. Daniels are currently fast asleep on the couch in the room you showed them to. Should I wake them up and have them move, or should I just let them sleep?"

"They're asleep? Well, that shouldn't surprise me. After all, they were falling asleep in my office. But still, I've got to see this."

The two left the café and continued to where Alex and Ben were. It truly was a cute sight. Both had such peaceful expressions on their faces. It was like they were unknown to the world of espionage and murder. It looked like they were on their own little Cloud 9.

Byrne stood there for a moment, thinking about how this was how Alex's life was supposed to be. No danger, no manipulation, no killings. Just a normal teenage boy, sleeping in a world where he had a guardian looking after him. Alex should've been thinking about universities, cars and girls at this point in his life. Not where his next mission would take him, or how long he would be in the hospital afterwards, or even if the next mission he went on would be his last.

Joe Byrne shook his head, realizing that Ed Shulsky was still waiting for an answer.

"Just let them be. We'll just right them a note stating that we didn't want to disturb them and that if they want to continue sleeping in a more comfortable place, it's right down the hall; room 308. Do you think you can find paper and write that down?" Joe replied.

"No need to. I have some in my back pocket," came the reply.

Except, it wasn't from Ed. It came from the other side of the room. Both men turned and looked at the occupants on the couch and studied them.

Alex still looked as peaceful as ever, as did Ben.

Ed looked to Joe, trying to figure out if the head man knew which one had spoken.

"Seriously guys? You can't even figure out that we're not asleep? We're spies for crying out loud. Isn't a spies number one rule: be able to wake up at the slightest bit of noise?"

"Alex?" Joe questioned.

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!"

Ben snorted, "And they call themselves trained spies! And yet, they can't tell the difference between a sleeping man, and an awake man!"

"You're both awake?" Ed asked.

"If I wasn't awake, then how could I be having this conversation with you?" Ben asked.

"I must say, that's impressive," Joe Byrne cut in. "I can't name one CIA agent off of the top of my head who's be able to wake up at a slight bit of noise while trying to sleep off jet-lag."

"Well, now you know two agents, one of which has worked with yours on a few missions. Does that count?" Alex asked, sitting upright.

"How'd you do it?" Shulsky asked, curious.

"It's called having a superior who doesn't care about you at all, and doesn't even show any emotion when an agent dies," Ben responded.

"Plus, having a superior who shoves new agents into the deep end with barely any instruction and one that refuses to send in back-up when it's called," Alex added ruefully, thinking about all of his missions where he was left to get out by himself.

"Yup," Ben agreed. "Being thrown in the deep end and being left to your own vises helps you quickly learn the need for things such as waking up because of noise even when one has jet-lag."

"Well, while Blunt's methods are highly unorthodox, and I would never use them, they sure do seem to be effective. Going back to what we came in here to tell you, if you guys want to sleep longer, room 308 is available for you two," Joe stated.

"Thanks," Alex replied, stifling a yawn. "I think I might just go and get a little bit more sleep. Just because we can wake up really easily does not mean that we don't need our sleep."

"I agree," Ben stated, and the two followed the CIA men out of the room and down the hall to room 308. Ben and Alex collapsed onto the beds, and were asleep before Shulsky even closed the door.

Shuslky silently closed the door and turned to Joe Byrne. "A kid should not have reflexes like that. It's just wrong for him to be able to wake up that quickly. And if what they say about Mr. Blunt is right, that kid doesn't have anyone looking out for him."

"I agree," Mr. Byrne replied. "But you're wrong on one account. Alex does have someone looking out for him. Ben Daniels there. Those two are some of the best in the business, and I think that even Blunt's scared of them-scared of what they'd do if either one died on a mission, especially if the other one wasn't there."

"Well, I think that Mr. Blunt should be scared! That kid's like a freaken ninja!"

"Yes…but they were right about him not caring much for his agent's well-being. I don't think the kid ever got to talk to anyone after what happened in Cairo….speaking of which, can you make sure to show them to my office when they wake up? I need to know something about what happened there…"

Ed was curious as to what exactly happened in Cairo, but knew that it was most likely classified, and Ed would not get anything out of the head of CIA.

Ed had heard rumors, of course, that something weird had happened involving a well-known terrorist organization, traps, and clones. But none of that had ever been confirmed. Lewinsky had been there, but refused to talk about it. Something major had gone down over there, and it seemed as though Alex had been in the middle of it. And if Mr. Blunt was as uncaring as everyone said, what had exactly happened to Alex after he returned to England?

The world of espionage was too cloak-and-daggerish for anyone to fully understand.

Ed realized this, but he did not realize just how many unseen forces were working at this time, trying to bring around the two MI6 agents' demise.


	17. Figments of Imagination

A/N: OOPS! SORRY! I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT I HAD A HALF FINISHED CHAPTER FOR THIS STORY! I THOUGHT I WAS ALREADY ON THE NEXT CHAPTER (SEE 'DEATH CUTS SHARPER THAN KNIVES' FOR REASONING BEHIND ME NOT UPDATING LIKE AT ALL-I DON'T FEEL LIKE REPEATING MYSELF) ANYWAYS, AS CONSOLATION, I AM POSTING THIS HALF CHAPTER AS A FULL CHAPTER SO THAT YOU GUYS HAVE SOMETHING TO READ. SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER

Chapter 16:

Approximately 14 hours later, Alex woke up. He opened his eyes in time to see Ben standing over him, about to dump a glass of ice water on his (Alex) head.

"Don't even think about it," growled Alex. He had never been much of a morning person, and the threat of getting water dumped on his head wasn't helping the fact.

"Why not? It's just a little bit of water. What harm can it do?" Ben questioned innocently.

"Hmm…let's see. It can cause the people who dump it a considerable amount of pain and torture from the receiver of the water. And, I hope you do remember that I have the means to cause this torture."

"You'll never get away with it!" Ben cried dramatically.

"Says who? I've been dead for two years. I don't exist. You can't punish someone who doesn't exist."

"Touché, Alex."

"You know, Ben, you seem to say that word a lot. I just realized that you have yet to win any word battles with me. What kind of spy are you that you can't even win a simple twist of words by your own comrade and partner?"

"My own comrade? I don't see anyone who falls under that category here. After all, my partner and comrade died two years ago, and so no one exists for me to loose word battles to."

"Wow, Ben. That hurt. Throwing my own words back in my face. Wow."

"Get used to it, Alex. Or should I say 'figment of my imagination'. After all, Alex died two years ago, so I can't be talking to him."

"You must be mentally unstable if you talk to a figment of your imagination, especially if said figment died two years ago."

"Or maybe you're just mentally unstable and are using my words against me to hide the fact that you are."

Alex let out a fake sob, "I can't believe you actually feel that way. You've just sent me into a state of clinical depression."

"Great. Cry yourself a river, build a bridge, and stare at it. Let me know who wins."

"What the heck?" Alex wondered. "Isn't it 'and get over it' at the end?"

"Yea," Ben agreed. "But Eagle made me promise never to say that again, because apparently he got it copy-writed. Stupid, right? Anyways, it's better than 'and jump off it' at the end."

"I guess so."

There was a knock on the door. Ed Shulsky walked in and bade them good morning.

"I'm guessing there's a reason for you being here?" Ben questioned.

"Yes. Mr. Byrne would like to see the two of you at some time in the near future. Alex, he said he wanted to talk about what happened with you in Cairo."

Alex sighed, "Didn't Mr. Blunt tell him already?"

"No," Ed replied. "Apparently Mr. Blunt didn't find it fitting enough to inform Mr. Byrne, no matter home many times he asked for intel on what happened."

"So I seriously have to tell him everything? I hate my life."

"Alex. What happened in Cairo?" Ben asked.

"Don't you remember when Blunt gave you my mission files? Well, they had the sick thought to name it 'Scorpia Rising'. You remember it now?"

"Ooooohhhh. That one."

"Yea. That one," Alex agreed in a very non-cheerful manner.

A/N: LIKE I SAID, HALF A CHAPTER. I WILL WORK AS HARD AS I CAN ON ALL OF MY SCHOOLWORK SO THAT I CAN UPDATE (HOPEFULLY) TOMORROW. SORRY! PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH ME AS I AM IN ALL HONORS CLASSES AND MIDTERMS ARE IN A WEEK!

BTW: I PUT OFF STUDYING FOR TWO IMPORTANT TESTS TOMORROW TO UPDATE, SO I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY.


	18. Story Time

Chapter 17: Story Time

"You wanted to see us?" Alex asked innocently of Mr. Byrne after entering the man's office.

"What? Oh, yes. Come in. Sit down," Mr. Byrne replied, gesturing once more to the two chairs opposite his desk.

After Ben and Alex had each sat down, Mr. Byrne continued.

"Alex. Ed told you what I want to know. Care to explain?"

"Not especially," Alex replied while staring intently at a bug on the wall.

Ben leaned over to Alex and wacked him on the back of the head. "Just tell him what happened. He has a right to know. You're lucky you got away with it the first time. I'm surprised he even helped you the first time without a proper explanation. Now tell the man. You owe him."

"Since when did you become my mother?" Alex sarcastically asked.

"Since the day you moved in, got rid of your self-preservation, and started doing crazy suicidal stunts on missions!"

"I wasn't half as bad as that."

Ben just snorted in reply. "That's what you think. You didn't get through one single mission without doing something like that."

"That's not true! What about that one with the Russian Mafia?"

"I wasn't there, and you're most likely lying about that one. Since when does the Russian Mafia ever NOT do anything crazy and dangerous?"

"Hey! I have proof that I didn't do anything crazy!"

"And that would be?"

"I didn't have to go to hospital for any reason at all!"

Ben just gave him a look, "Yea, but you stumbled into the flat at 2 AM and passed out from your injuries. You're very lucky you could convince me to not bring you to the hospital and instead just call Snake."

"Either way, I didn't go to the hospital. And I do look out for myself…"

"Right after you finish the mission," Ben added. "Now am I going to have to lock you in a room with Eagle for three days straight, or are you going to start talking?"

Alex glared at Ben for a full minute before responding. "Fine. In Cairo you asked me 'what did Razim do to you?'. I'm guessing you are looking for the answer to that question?"

"Yes. If I remember correctly, you responded with something about Razim being obsessed with pain or something along those lines? And then later you disappeared for a while and my men found you in the desert by the remains of…was it a car?"

"Yea," Alex said, looking slightly dejected. "They kidnapped me and Jack. Then, Jack managed to escape. Except it was a planned escape. Razim was doing some sort of experiment to make a measurement of pain. He figured he had enough data on physical pain and wanted some data on emotional pain. Anyways Jack escaped…" At this point in time Alex's voice trailed off and Alex sat lost in thought for a minute.

Neither man said anything, knowing that Alex needed a minute.

Alex took a deep breath and continued. Both men were startled at how inhuman and mechanic the boy's voice was and how impassive his face was. The only hint of any emotion was in Alex's eyes. "Jack escaped-kind of. They made me watch this all on a TV while tied up to a chair. They allowed her to steal one of the cars and everything. She drove off into the desert…and…and…they blew up the car." Alex's eyes had dropped down towards the floor. "She didn't do anything. She didn't deserve this. She was innocent, and they just blew her up. No big deal. Simple push of the button. They just ended her life. Did you know she couldn't cook? I actually caught her one time burning water-though I suspect there was something else in the pot. She didn't deserve this. She could be married right now and have kids of her own. But no."

Alex finished and there was a moment's silence.

"I'm sorry Alex," Mr. Byrne said softly, sympathizing with the teen.

"Me too," Alex sighed. "Anyways, anything else you would like to know?"

"No. I've just been worried about you. You didn't see yourself that day. The guard brought you into the room, and your face was so blank-so devoid of emotion. I'll admit it, I was scared. The only human emotion showing was your eyes that just screamed 'hurt', 'anguish', and 'pain'."

"MI6 has turned me into a weapon. After I came back from that mission, I could see it in their faces that they knew. They knew that they were the cause. They knew they had created a lethal weapon-a killing machine. And they were scared." Alex laughed humorlessly. "That's the first time I've ever seen them scared. And I see it in their faces every time I go in there."

"Alex- I'm truly sorry that you ever got mixed up in this business. You should've never been used by MI6. I agree that you're an amazing spy and are very useful, but that didn't give Blunt the right to do to you what he did. I'm sorry about your guardian," Mr. Byrne said in a soft voice.

"Yea, me too. But feeling sorry isn't going to bring her back. Sometimes, we just have to move on in life and forget about the past," Alex replied.

"Thanks for your hospitality, Mr. Byrne, but Alex and I need to be getting to the airport about now if we want to catch our flight to Australia," Ben interrupted.

"Of course. I'll send Shulsky to drive you to the airport. If we get anything out of the prisoners, I'll contact you in some way. It was great seeing you alive, Alex. Nice to meet you Ben. Do me a favor. Look out for Alex. One of these days his luck isn't quite going to hold out."

"Hey! I can look out for myself!" Alex protested. But it fell on deaf ears as both men gave him a look and continued as though he never said anything.

"Of course I will, Mr. Byrne. Come on, Alex. And don't forget to re-dye your hair in the airport bathroom."

"Do I look like an idiot, Ben?"

"I don't think I want to comment on that. I wish to keep all of my limbs intact. After all, only you can get yourself mixed into the messes you do. No one else on the planet has that skill. Good-bye Mr. Byrne."

Ben and Alex stood up and walked out of the office. They were about to walk down the hall when Mr. Byrne called out, "If either of you guys ever need anything, you know how to contact me."

Alex turned around with warmth in his eyes, "Thanks."

Ben put his arm around Alex and the two of them headed outside to where Ed was waiting with a car to drive them to the airport. Once the pair was situated in the back seat, Ed started driving. The trio was silent until they reached the airport.

"Bye Alex, Ben. I'm really glad you're not actually dead," Ed started. "If you ever need anything, well, I'd be glad to help."

"Thanks, Ed. And thanks for your help with the Ark Angel mission-even if you did almost get me killed by sending me to space. And make sure Lewinsky knows that there's no hard feelings for what he did," Alex replied.

After a few last final greetings were exchanged, Alex and Ben entered the airport and proceeded through security.

When their flight finally started boarding, Alex and Ben were one of the first ones on. They took their seats and waited for takeoff.

Ben was the first out of the two to speak, "Whew! So much for our relaxing time in Miami. At least we'll have a couple of days at a hotel before we see any action. After all, we do need to figure out the best way to get into this organization."

"And I'll be glad for those days. I mean, Miami is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to Australia. And this time I'll actually be entering the country legally and the normal way."

"Did you just say the word 'normal'? Nothing that has anything to do with you is ever normal, Will." **A/N: If you've forgotten, Will is Alex's alias for the mission**

"Ok, that might be true, but I'm sure that everything will be normal as we make our way out of the airport in Australia. The rest of the time? No. But I mean, what could happen in an airport in Australia?"


	19. Mild Conversation FILLER CHAPTER

**A/N: So I really can't wait to get through all of these chapters and get to more action packed areas and everything, mainly cause I have a really good idea for this story and everything and want to get up to where I have planned out 'til (which is about 20 of my sized chapters from now). Therefore, I have decided to keep writing, even when one chapter is meant to be done and either write a whole bunch of chapters at once or write a bunch of really really really long chapters. I haven't quite decided yet.**

**PS: Don't kill me. For one, I live in the US, so I've never been to any place I've been describing, so if I describe any place wrong, or use American language vs. British language, please forgive me. **

Chapter 18:

Alex didn't notice that he had dozed off until he felt Ben shaking his shoulder. "Alex? Wake up. We're almost landing."

Alex blearily opened his eyes and nodded to show that he understood. As much as he enjoyed being able to sleep, it didn't mean that he particularly liked where he was sleeping. It was an enclosed space (obviously, seeing how it was an airplane), and wasn't at all as comfortable as a normal bed or even couch.

Ben smiled at the younger man and was relieved that Alex had not had any nightmares while he was asleep. Ben had no clue whether C-Unit had managed to fix the problem, Alex had gotten over them, or Alex was just too exhausted to have them. As much as he hated Alex being part of a unit other than K-unit, he was glad that they had seemed to help Alex find himself once more and patch the nearly broken boy back together.

Alex glanced out the window and saw the beautiful landscape of Australia.

Ben caught him staring out the window and leaned over with a smile, "Guess you didn't get to see this view last time you were here."

"Nope," Alex responded slightly rueful. "Hurtling down to Earth in a small space capsule does have its negatives. Even if the fire from the atmosphere hadn't prevented me from seeing anything, the sickness that came with being back in an atmosphere with gravity certainly would've."

"I still can't believe that you've been to space. I mean, it's just crazy to think about. Especially since you didn't get any training for it or anything."

"Well, it's not like I had that much of a choice."

"True. Anyways, I've never got a chance to ask you- what was it like to have no gravity and to just be floating around?"

"Truthfully, Ben? Kinda scary and weird. At first I didn't even know how the heck I was supposed to move, and then I almost threw up from motion sickness because I made myself spin crazily. You have no idea how hard it is to move in zero gravity."

"I can imagine. And then to have to fight a guy in those conditions must have been terrible."

"It was," Alex replied with a small shudder. "I seriously thought I was going to die right there. Every time I hit the guy, both of us were propelled back and basically slammed into whatever wall was behind us. It was truly on luck that killed the other guy. I mean, the likelihood that his knife would be facing that way and that I would propel him back at such a force and in that specific direction is extremely small. What was really gross was seeing the blood hang there in droplets in mid-air, floating about."

Ben gave a small shudder at the picture that formed in his mind.

The seatbelt light clicked on, and the two spies fell silent and quickly slid their buckles together. Shortly after a blond flight attendant walked through, checking that everyone had their seatbelts on, they felt the plane begin to descend.

Alex took one last glance at the ground below him before switching automatically into spy mode. It had been two full years since he had gone on a mission for MI6, and he was sure that the game had changed during his time at the SAS. One thing was for sure-people wouldn't be looking at him anymore and thinking 'schoolboy'. They might think of him as inexperienced, but certainly not untrained.

For perhaps the thousandth time since he had first told MI6 that Ben knew about him being alive, Alex was glad that he had Ben there watching his back. There was not a single person in the world that Alex trusted more than Ben.

**A/N: I understand that this is a super short chapter, but I felt that it should be ended here. It's just the way life is. Anyways, I'll write the next chapter tonight also and then post that one tomorrow. (after all, we can't update a superfluous amount….I have to keep you guys in slight suspense at least some of the time.) There is a chance that I will update again tonight just to be nice, but I'm not sure.**


	20. Masked Intentions

**A/N: OK, I'm feeling generous. I'm posting this right after the chapter 18. MAKE SURE YOU READ CHAPTER 18 BEFORE READING THIS ONE, EVEN IF IT IS JUST A FILLER CHAPTER!**

Chapter 19:

There was absolutely no trouble as Alex and Ben made their way through passport controls and reclaimed their luggage. Not that they really expected it. After all, this wasn't an airport run by the CIA. Well, technically it should be ASIS (seeing how they were in Australia) but still.

The first hint of trouble came as Alex and Ben were walking through an extremely large, empty parking lot (taking a shortcut to the hidden car MI6 had arranged for them).

A shout was heard behind them as they reached the middle. Instinctively, Alex and Ben reached for their hidden guns that they concealed on their persons, but did not bring them out into the open. The pair turned as one to face where the shout came from.

They were greeted by a very strange sight. A black, unmarked van with tinted windows had pulled up to the curb at one end of the parking lot (where the two spies had just come from) and four men dressed in typical combat gear had jumped out. They were currently hurrying towards Alex and Ben.

Alex almost immediately recognized the outfits as those used by the Australian SAS (**A/N: Yes, I did check the book, and the soldiers that Alex stayed with in Snakehead were called SAS**). Instead of running or drawing his weapon, Alex hesitated. If these men were soldiers, then there had to be a reason that they had ran after Ben and himself. Mr. Blunt might've called them to have them give the spies new information. At the same time, the fake passports might've been discovered and the mission might be over before it even started.

Ben didn't have any more of an idea of what to do than Alex. The same things were running through his head, and he didn't know which would be better. To run, and appear even more guilty/miss vital information to the mission or stay and maybe be compromised/receive vital information.

"Alex? How about we keep them about 15 feet away and then have a little chat and see what exactly they want. That way we'll have plenty of time to run if need be or we'll get information that we need."

"Sounds like a better plan than what I was thinking," Alex responded.

"Really? What were you thinking?" Ben asked, slightly curious. After all, it wasn't every day that he could come up with a better plan than Alex.

"I was thinking we take them by surprise, knock them all out, take one as hostage and then interrogate him as to his motives once we reach a secure location."

Ben's eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch, "Well, in that case, I must agree that my plan is much MUCH better. After all, these are soldiers, and we're not exactly in Britain anymore."

"Which is exactly why we're sticking to your plan."

By now, the soldiers were about 30 feet away. As Alex had noticed earlier, this was a VERY large parking lot, and the soldiers were only briskly walking, not running.

Just as Alex was noticing this piece of information, the soldiers suddenly stopped and pulled out guns. Alex and Ben reacted rather quickly and had their own pulled out, but lowered them when they realized that the soldiers were pointing the guns at a group of people who were coming from the direction in which Alex and Ben had been walking.

Whirling around, the Brits realized that there was a second group of four men walking toward them. Alex was surprised to note that these men not only had the same guns as the original group, but were also wearing the same exact uniforms.

(SHORT PAUSE. SHORT PAUSE. IT FEELS LIKE THIS IS WHERE THE COMMERCIAL COMES ON AND EVERYONE IS LEFT WONDERING WHO THIS NEW GROUP IS. SHORT PAUSE. SHORT PAUSE.)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK IS DONE AND SCENE OPENS UP ONCE AGAIN!)

The two groups of men dressed like soldiers were now 20 feet away from each other, but not moving any closer. Alex and Ben were in the dead center of this, about 10 feet away from each group.

"So much for not letting them get closer than 15 feet, Ben," Alex whispered to his partner.

"I know. But now we have a problem. One or both groups is definitely a fraud. Now all we have to figure out is which group is wearing a fake uniform."

"Really? I would've never guessed. Thank you for enlightening me in this situation," Alex responded with heavy sarcasm.

They fell silent as they heard whispering off to the one side. Alex, being the better lip-reader of the two turned to face the man from the second group whispering into a cell-phone, while Ben stood at his back, facing the other group. This way, the spies never turned their backs on the possible enemy.

The words that Alex could read off the man's lips were as follows:

TROUBLE FROM POSSIBLE ENEMY….MEN WEARING SAS UNIFORMS….HAVE TO TALK THE SPIES INTO COMING WIT H US AND NOT THEM….SEND IN… THEY NEVER SHUT UP AND ….SEEM TO KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT THING TO SAY IS.

['….' are where the words Alex missed would be placed. This was a one-sided conversation]

After the man snapped his phone shut, Alex repeated what he had seen to Ben who was silently listening.

"Well, to me, that sounds like something the good guys or actual SAS might say, but we really can't be sure, can we? I mean, the enemy could easily say the same thing," Ben concluded.

"That's what I was thinking too. I mean, the part where the guy said 'men wearing SAS uniforms' implies that he doesn't think they're soldiers. I mean, what non-soldier would say something like that. Wouldn't the enemy just naturally assume that the men were soldiers?"

"Exactly. But in this day and age, all terrorists/criminals are crazy and insane, and you can never really go by anything they say."

A slow smirk spread across Alex's face, "But if we can get them to talk about their purposes and reasoning, maybe we'll be able to distinguish who's telling the truth."

"Ok, Alex. Let's play it your way. You do the talking, though. You're much much better at getting people to pour out their life stories than I am."

"Hi guys," Alex started, lazily-no longer whispering. "Having fun waving guns at each other? No? Then maybe we can speed up this process a little bit before your weak little arms get tired of holding up those guns."

The response was unanimous from everyone. They all glared at Alex murderously.

"I'm sorry. Have I offended you?" Alex sounded anything but sorry. In fact, his tone of voice made it very clear that he was enjoying himself immensely.

After a slight pause, Alex continued, this time in a cold emotionless voice, "Well, too bad. You can go crying home to your mommies later. Right about now I want answers, and I want them now."

Ben smirked at how teenager that sounded.

"First question, though I doubt you will answer this one truthfully. You guys (at this, Alex pointed to the original group of men who had appeared) will answer first, and then you guys will answer directly afterwards. Who the heck are you guys?"

A man Alex immediately nick-named Muscles (due to his extreme muscular build) stepped forward and answered with one word, "MI6."

Alex nodded and turned to the other group (the ones who called for back-up), "And you guys?"

"CIA." Alex nick-named this guy Strongman, seeing as Alex wasn't feeling all that creative and this guy was equally as muscled as the first.

"Ok….So where's the worst place you've ever eaten?"

It was obvious that no one shared the same logic as Alex, as none of the men understood how this could make a difference.

"That queer Egyptian café down the street?" Muscles responded, confused.

Strongman did not respond right away, but when he did, a smile had crept across his face, "The food I had once while…camping."

Ben's eyes narrowed. Something about the way the man had said the word and hesitated before he responded raised alarm bells. The man was definitely hiding something.

"Great! I'll make note to never go camping with you and not to visit that Egyptian restaurant during my stay here. You know, they don't ever say what the worst places to eat are when you read a tour guide book."

If the 'soldiers' had thought that Alex was mental before, they were really convinced of it by now. There were guns out, the tension was thicker than a metal beam, and here he was asking for tour guide information.

"So what's the one thing that you feel most guilty about doing in your life?"

Again, Alex's question was met with confused and incredulous stares, but no one objected it.

"Shooting at this one innocent kid a few years ago," Muscles admitted with a sheepish grin.

His partners jerked their heads to face him. Their faces clearly were screaming 'WHAT THE HECK' even though not a single sound escaped their lips.

"Throwing a grenade into an area that held a kid and no one else," came Strongman's answer.

"Interesting…you both regret doing something that involved a kid and some sort of warfare. Anyone care to give more details about these specific incidents?"

When both men responded negatively, Alex shrugged. "I figured as much. Now…"

Alex's last question trailed off as another black van pulled in directly behind Strongman and his crew. Alex and Ben shared a look and got ready for anything to happen.

The door slid open. A group of men got out. Alex reached for his second hidden gun and pulled it out.

He had recognized the first man to step out of the van.


	21. Questions, Questions, And Less Answers

**A/N: YAY! The big 2-0 has finally arrived!**

Chapter 20:

_Alex recognized the first man who stepped out. _

The man opened his mouth to speak, "So wha-"

He was not able to get far. Almost as soon as Alex had recognized the man from his old life, he angled his body.

The gun he had just been reaching for was immediately brought up. Four shots filled the air. All four shots hit their mark. Four bodies fell heavily to the pavement.

Alex felt everyone's gazes on him. To them, he had just shot four random men without knowing basically anything about them. Or so they thought.

"Will? Care to enlighten those of us who don't randomly start on killing sprees for seemingly no reason?" Ben questioned.

"I am offended. I have not gone on a killing spree for like 3 years now! And that was all _their_ fault! I had no choice in the matter! And anyways, I didn't kill them. I just…knocked them out for a good 36 hours."

"36 HOURS?"

"It's not my fault _they_ decided it would be better for me to have the long lasting stuff for no reason except on the off chance that they were discovered by their buddies," Alex cried out indignantly.

Ben gave him a hard look, "We'll be have a discussion later."

"Yes, mum," Alex replied sarcastically.

"Wow. How original. Next you'll be telling me that my socks are untied," Ben responded, equally sarcastic.

Alex opened his mouth to give some witty reply, but he was interrupted by a loud cough from behind them.

The two spies turned around and faced the men who had approached them.

Strongman opened his mouth, "Well, I'm guessing that you figured out who was lying, due to your actions, so would you mind coming with us and continuing this father-son squabble later?"

Ben snorted, "Sure, but you should know that we're not…well what exactly are we, Will? Are we related or not?"

"Well….technically no because technically that… event… occurred two years ago, and so that technically was the end of the legal adoption. But technically that event didn't really happen, so technically I could still be adopted to you. And…I don't really know. It's too complicated to think about right now. Sometime when we have like a week to ourselves, we can figure this out. Ok?" Alex replied.

"Yeaaa…That sounds like a good plan." Turning back to Strongman, Ben finished his original thought. "Technically, we're not related. But depending on what way you look at it, he's my adopted son. But he's really only 8 years younger than me, if that makes a difference in this situation at all."

Strongman just raised one eyebrow.

Alex walked to the van, and clapped Strongman on the shoulder as he passed him, "Don't think about it. Just forget it. We're simply partners….but not in the creepy way you're probably now thinking of after that little spiel. Just the normal government way….if the government can even be called normal."

With that Alex and Ben walked to the van and climbed in, 7 of the men following behind. Strongman just stood there trying to figure out what exactly Alex had said and meant before shrugging and climbing into the driver's seat and driving off.

Another van pulled in behind them and picked up the knocked out men, following soon after the first van.

(PAGE BREAK THINGY….BTW, ALEX AND BEN GO WITH THE PEOPLE THAT ALEX HAD RECOGNIZED [the four men who climbed out of the van at the end of the last chapter])

The first hour of their car ride was very silent. Each man was left to their own thoughts.

It was broken when Alex decided it would be fun to confuse the men further.

"Is no one wondering why exactly I chose to come with you guys?"

Strongman took that as an opening for answers to the questions in his head.

"I think all of us are. I mean, you remain neutral, ask a million crazy questions that seem to have no meaning or relevance at all, and then suddenly you chose a side and knock the other side out in 2 seconds flat."

Ben muttered under his breath, "This should be interesting."

"I'll have you know that those questions were actually very informative!" Alex told Ben.

"Will. I've known you for YEARS. I'm sure they were….to your messed up mind. I have yet to understand a single thing you do, except for the shooting or knocking out of bad guys on missions."

"Well, that's your issue."

"How the heck is this my issue? You're the one with the messed up brain!"

"It's your issue because your brain capacity is obviously significantly smaller than mine if you cannot even comprehend the information a simple questioning can give you," Alex replied, not meaning a word he said.

Strongman cleared his throat, "Like I said, you can have this father-son/partner squabble later. Will? That's your name right? I mean, he's called you that a bunch of times, so it is your name, correct?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Alex replied.

Strongman was about to open his mouth again but got interrupted by Ben, "Don't ask. Soon you'll learn that you never get a straight answer from him. Somehow he can answer a yes or no question without answering it. Just give up and move on in life."

"…Ok. Anyways, I'm just going to call you Will until someone tells me to do otherwise. So what exactly did our answers to your questions tell you? I mean, how is 'what is the one thing you regret' and 'where's the worst place you've eaten' relevant to anything? I can understand the 'who sent you' question. That one's obvious. But what about the others?"

"It's quite simple, really," Alex began. "The question about the worst place you've eaten told me a lot of stuff. The other guys answered 'queer Egyptian café'. That tells me that they've probably eaten there recently and that was the first place that came to mind. It was obviously not a fully truthful answer, especially since that café is located so close nearby. One lie always leads to another, and liars have a habit of continuously telling lies, so that put them in suspicion."

"I guess that makes a little bit of sense… but not really," this came from one of the men Alex had recognized while four of them were getting out of the van.**(A/N: Going to call him Man1 for the time being until he tells someone is name because I don't really feel like confusing you guys with wordy descriptions when it is all the same person)**

"And the second question?" Strongman prompted.

"Well, I heard of a little…incident that occurred with a certain group of people that a lot of people regretted, and I was wondering if either of you groups were a part of this incident."

"What kind of incident?" Strongman asked, suspicious.

"Just something that happened to a younger man while on a continent."

Ben snorted once more, "You're never going to get an answer out of him. For some odd reason, he has this issue with telling people things and answering questions. In fact, this is the most I've heard him answer to questions in a long time…except for that meeting with the CIA a couple of days ago. I'm surprised he hasn't really lied to you yet."

"What do you mean by 'hasn't really lied yet'?" Man1 asked.

Alex smiled, "He means that I've given random general names for things in the past and haven't told you any specifics. Therefore, not really giving you any information at all while still managing to give you information. And then of course, stretching the truth a bit in certain areas, X-Ray."

Strongman slammed on the brakes and the van jerked to a halt. 8 of the van's occupants (the SAS soldiers) all stared at Alex in shock.

X-Ray (AKA Man1) narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "How do you know my name?"

Alex shrugged, "Between you, Scooter, Sparks, and Texas, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out eventually. Anyways, wake me up when we arrive."

With that final statement, Alex rested his head on Ben's shoulder and closed his eyes.

The entire van's occupants were staring at Alex in shock and confusion.

Ben gave them a piece of advice, "Staring is not going to get him to answer your questions. In fact, nothing will. But I'm sure he'll explain everything eventually. He generally throws people a bait to get their brain spinning, lets them thing on it for a while, and then explains everything. It's when he doesn't even let you know that he knows something when you have to worry and get creative."

Ben turned to look at the dozing teen's head and frowned, "I'm going to have to start charging you for the amount of time you use me as your personal pillow."


	22. AN

A/N: Hey Guys! So the prequel to this story, 'Death Cuts Sharper than Knives', is nearing the end of the story. Therefore, I have decided that I want to get DCSTK over and done with so that I have one less fanfic to be writing. This story WILL be continued, it just might not be for a little bit. I will be finishing DCSTK as fast as possible. Even if I am not done with it by March 12 (random date) I will then update this story once more. Please do not give up on this story as I PROMISE I will return to it. I have a great plot laid out in my mind, and I hope to be able to write it all. THANKS!

-GiverofGrace


	23. Revealances

**A/N: GUESS WHAT GUYS! IT'S MARCH 12! AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? CHAPTER 21! Who's excited? I AM! And surprisingly enough, I've had no sugar yet today…..**

Chapter 21:

As the large van neared its destination, the road became more and more bumpy, and soon Alex couldn't even keep his head on Ben's shoulder out of extreme discomfort.

When the soldiers had noticed that Alex was awake, they had tried to question him once more, but he refused to utter a single word. Soon, they just all gave up and drifted off into their own thoughts.

To say they were all happy to arrive at the base's main building would be counted as an understatement. Sparks, Texas, X-Ray, and Scooter wanted to know how a British spy had recognized them. The other four soldiers were content to find out at some point in the future. Ben wanted to know how Alex knew the soldiers. Alex just wanted to keep them guessing for as long as possible.

The ten of them quickly piled out of the van, before parting ways. Sparks and his unit, along with Alex and Ben headed to the Sergeant's office. The other four went back to their hut.

Sparks knocked at the door, before opening it when he heard a faint 'come in'. The six men entered. Four of them came to attention.

"At ease," The Sergeant commanded, and then four soldiers dropped into a more comfortable position. "So these are the two spies that the CIA told us we had to pick up from the airport?"

"Yes, sir," Sparks replied, being the captain of his unit.

"I was told there were a few issues that you encountered?"

"Nothing we couldn't handle, Sarge," Texas consoled with a smile.

The Sergeant sighed, "It's Sergeant or Sir. Not Sarge. So what was the issue?"

"Well, Sir," Sparks started. "There seemed to be another group of men that were also trying to get our British buddies over here."

"Another group?"

"Yea. The issue was that they were wearing the same uniforms as us and got to them before us."

The Sergeant raised an eyebrow, "And how was this rectified?"

"Well, the younger guy over here, I think his name is Will-"

"You think?"

Sparks shifted uncomfortably, and X-Ray decided to answer, "Yea, we think. He hasn't really given us a straight answer. The other guy called him Will, but he also all but said that wasn't his name."

The Sergeant's eyes passed over the two spies, and realized that it might be harder than he thought to get straight answers as to the situation.

"Anyways, so 'Will' seems to know the four of us, and so when he saw us he knew that the other guys were lying and knocked them out."

The Sergeant nodded before turning to Alex, "Care to explain how exactly you know of one of our best units here?"

Alex shrugged, "Not really. I'm sure if you think about it for a while it will all make sense."

Scooter turned to Alex, "We've been thinking about it for over an hour on the way here! Why won't you just answer our questions?"

The Sergeant made some shushing gesture at Scooter, "I'm sure he'll explain it eventually. Anyways, would you care to explain just how come the CIA called me up and told me to pick up two British agents and bring them to the SAS training field for protection? And why I'm supposed to find you two safe passage back to England?"

"Umm..." Ben started. "We're just as in the dark as you. Did the CIA say anything else?"

"Just that 'he talked. Mole inside MI6 ratting you out'. Make any sense?"

Alex and Ben exchanged glances.

Alex opened his mouth, "I would guess, Sergeant, that the CIA is talking about one of the guys we ran into while in Florida where we had a slight issue. I'm guessing that the CIA got him to talk and that he told them there is a mole inside of MI6. Which means that this mole has probably told a lot of people all about where Ben and I are and what our mission is about. And seeing how the CIA actually cares about people's lives, they probably did not want us to walk into a trap of any kind."

The Sergeant nodded, "I guess that makes sense. Anyways, I've booked a flight for the two of you and Sparks' unit to England via New Mexico. It leaves in four days. You'll be our guests until then."

Alex nodded, "Any guesses yet?"

Five heads shook in a negative gesture.

"I don't even know how he knows you guys," Ben commented.

Alex smiled, "Just remember: you owe me that Australian BBQ that got quite rudely interrupted last time."

Comprehension dawned on X-Ray's face before confusion settled in, "Oh! Wait….but your hair and eyes…"

Alex nodded, "Well, I have been dead for the past two years. Can't walk around normal."

"Well, we'll get you that good old Australian outback BBQ tomorrow night. And I promise, no more grenades."

"Alex?" Scooter, Texas, and Sparks burst out.

Once again, Alex smiled, "In the flesh."

Ben's brows were furrowed concernedly, "What does he mean? About the grenades?"

"Last time I was here, the ASIS made them set up some sort of training exercise to test my skill so that a certain one of their agents would go on a mission with me for them. Sparks and buddies over here had the job of luring me to the place through the guise of a BBQ on the beach. When I was about to leave they promised me a proper BBQ the next time I came. I made them promise that there would be no grenades."

The Sergeant nodded, "I was so sure I was sending a kid to his death, even with the tracker in his shoe."

Ben nodded, "So that's where you got the battery to send the distress signal for me to come pick you up."

Alex nodded, "Now who says they direct me to the food?"

Six men laughed at this statement, and Alex pretended to be indignant, "What? I am a teenage boy after all. No matter how old my identities say I am."

**A/N: Not all that long, but it was a good place to end it. It's more of just a filler chapter before some more excitement happens. **

**Review and tell me what you think. I'm thinking there is going to be two more chapters until the end of this story. *sniffle*.**

**BUT…THEN THE SEQUEL TO THIS WILL COME OUT! It's going to be titled 'The Long Way Home' (can any of you guess as to what it will be about?) and I already have a sequel for that in mind. I'm not quite sure what that one will be called or what direction it will take, but I'm working on developing the idea. **


	24. Australian Style or Rider Style?

**A/N: Someone very nicely brought to my attention that Ben actually did know Sparks, Texas, X-Ray, and Scooter and the Sergeant beforehand because of Snakehead….but I forgot that little detail, so we're pretending he didn't, ok? No, I do not know how that can work at all in the Snakehead book. We're just going to forget that little minor (ok, major) detail and move on. Sound good?**

**Also, I've noticed that I tend to skip the non-action parts of the story (just because I'm not that great at writing them), and so I have decided to write the beach BBQ scene. Sorry if it doesn't turn out the best.**

Chapter 22:

When the jeep pulled onto the beach that night, Alex was surprised to find a bunch of other jeeps already there and soldiers loitering about.

Seeing his confused expression, Texas explained, "Well, we rarely get a night off to do something like this, so we used your visit as an excuse to get the night off. And we knew that everyone else would want to join us, so we invited them if that's ok."

Alex nodded, "But the Sergeant actually gave all of you the night off?"

Scooter grinned, "Yea. It took some convincing on our part, but it's worth it. Now we can give you a REAL Australian BBQ **(A/N: I live in the USA, not Australia, so if this isn't how one actually would be, blame it on my lack of knowledge in these areas)**."

X-Ray also grinned at Alex, "Not to mention the fact that tonight was supposed to be RTI training. Let's just say that the sergeant forgot that one little detail and none of us were…eager to remind him about it."

"So let's just say the two of you are more like celebrities now to the soldiers. I mean, who likes RTI training?" Texas added back in.

Ben laughed, "Alex here does."

Which of course meant that Alex got 4 strange stares from the SAS men. Scooter was the one to venture to ask, "Why?"

Alex shrugged, "Why not?"

Ben took over explaining after that, "Alex just likes annoying the Green Jackets-the guys who run RTI-and show them up. He's a teen and they all think he'll break within a minute, but he doesn't. And then he likes to get them all riled up with his sarcastic mouth-don't ask me why. He has some strange way of viewing how a captive should act. And then he loves to escape from inescapable places and play some prank on the Green Jackets before going back to bed. He's usually the only well rested person the next day."

"What kinds of pranks does he play on them?" Sparks wanted to know.

"He does a lot of different things. The most memorable was probably the first time he came to the SAS training grounds."

"What did he do?"

"I sent them off a cliff in a trailer," Alex cut in, tired of having everyone talk about him.

Sparks burst out laughing, "Seriously? I gotta hand it to you, kid, that's a pretty creative way of getting revenge."

Alex shrugged. By this time, the six of them had reached the other soldiers and everyone gathered around to see who was doing what.

Seeing how Sparks had been the one to talk the Sergeant into this, he had unofficially been put in charge.

"Ok men! So we have a couple of jobs that need to get done. First and foremost being the gathering of wood. I want at least 5 units out gathering wood. Yes, that means half of you are going to be gathering wood. Just remember, the more wood you get, the longer we get stay out here. And I'm sure none of us want to go back and have RTI training right? Well, except for teenagers who have a messed up head. But he doesn't count." There was a pause. "Well? Why are you all just standing there? 20 of you should be heading into the woods to gather wood? GO!"

Immediately, 5 unit leaders called out to their grumbling units that they were going to gather wood.

"For the rest of you guys…. One unit will be in charge of getting the music and speakers hooked up, 2 units will be in charge of the food, and the last unit can set up the tables and chairs. Got it?"

One soldier raised his hand, "And what about you guys, Sparks? What about your unit?"

Sparks grinned, "Well, seeing how there doesn't seem to be any more jobs left to do, I guess we'll just have to be the overseers. I think there's a pretty good view from the water, what do you think, Scooter?"

Scooter nodded enthusiastically, "I think there's a great view over there!"

"Well then. I guess we must get to this ideal overseer position as quickly as possible to catch all of the lazy soldiers!"

With that, Sparks and his unit started racing towards the ocean. Halfway there, X-Ray paused, "Coming guys?"

Alex and Ben grinned at each other and raced into the water.

3 hours later saw the BBQ in full swing. Soldiers were splashing around in the water like little kids, eating the food, and someone had even set up a volleyball net. And of course, there was blasting music. The flickering light cast off by the giant bonfire lit up the festivities.

Alex, Ben and Sparks' unit were currently sitting down in chairs near the giant bonfire eating their food.

"You know something?" Alex started. "This is probably one of the best nights of my life."

Sparks raised an eyebrow while the others digested that statement, "This? Then your life must've been pretty bad."

Alex nodded, "Yea. I mean, my parents died when I was one, and my uncle was never around. When he was, he was so distant and kinda cold. So that rules out the first 14 years of my life. And then after that, MI6 entered into it and it was a constant repetition of going on missions and recovering from missions. Of course with school and then later the SAS mixed in. Not much time for evenings like this."

The soldiers nodded their understanding and all was quiet for the next couple of minutes. Other than the noise made by the soldiers, all that could be heard was the gentle lapping of the waves and the crackling fire.

And that was when the grenade went off.

(A/N: Was totally going to end it here, but there's only the epilogue left after this and I wanted to make it longer for you guys.)

The sight could have been called comical if the situation hadn't been so dire. The grenade had landed fifty feet down the beach from the soldiers, and so no one had been injured. Within seconds, the soldiers changed from their partying attitudes to something that was much more deadly.

Someone had turned the music off, and there was silence as the soldiers grabbed their guns and looked around for a threat.

No more violent noises were heard, but the soldiers were still on edge. It was like the calm before the storm.

Sparks started moving away from the light of the bonfire with his unit so as to make them less of a conspicuous target. He was about to remind Ben and Alex to do the same thing when the second grenade went off.

This one was much closer being only twenty-five feet away. The soldiers all dropped and the ones closer to the fire or where the grenade had blown up rolled away from the offending area.

Suddenly, an unexpected sound could be heard and all of the soldiers looked up and towards the offending noise. Laughter.

Both Ben and Alex's shoulders were shaking and both of them were clutching their sides. One thought was running through all of the soldiers minds: have the spies gone insane?

For it seemed that they had. The Australian SAS training camp was being attacked, and these foreigners were laughing. Did they not see the urgency in the situation?

Finally, Ben regained his breath, "And that's how you get revenge Rider-style!"

This statement of course sent Alex and Ben into another round of peeling laughter.

It took five minutes for the spies to calm down enough to explain.

"Well…"Alex started. "Remember last time I was here? And how you guys shot at me and lobbed grenades at me for that test thingy? Well, I figured it was high time that someone gave you a dish of your own medicine. So…yea. Roles reversed, it was pretty funny to see your reactions. I think you all fully passed the test on how you reacted. But seriously! Did you SEE your faces! That was just too good!"

Ben frowned, "But Alex! We never had a chance to use the gunfire!"

Alex's eyes widened, "Shoot! Well, no, don't actually shoot, but… Oh well. We can always set it off now."

A round of gunfire emitted from the woods and there was even sand spraying up from where it had landed.

The soldiers once more jerked back in shock.

"What the heck?" Sparks finally managed to choke out.

Alex adopted a serious expression before patting Sparks on the back, "That, my friend, is called revenge. You should look it up. It's really quite useful."

"But don't try to get revenge on Alex," Ben warned. "He always seems to be able to dodge it and then get his own payback for the attempted revenge. Better to just let it go. Because Rider revenge never ends even remotely nicely."

**A/N: GUESS WHAT? Only the Epilogue is left!**

**AND THEN THE SEQUAL (OR WHATEVER YOU'D LIKE TO CALL IT)**


	25. Epilogue

**A/N: And here it is. The final chapter. All that stands between you and the sequel. Hope you enjoy!**

Epilogue:

"Flight 307 to Arizona is now boarding in terminal 4," A voice stated from over the PA system.

As one, Ben, Alex, and Sparks' unit made their way to that terminal. They would fly from Australia to Arizona before flying back to England and landing at Heathrow, and refuel in New York. It was not the most ideal route from Australia to England, but it was the one they would use.

It had been decided that Sparks, Texas, X-Ray, and Scooter would escort the two spies back to England as their protection detail. Alex had protested that it wasn't needed, but Sparks had insisted. And that's how Alex found himself with not just one unit, but three. (K-Unit, C-Unit, and Sparks' Unit). And to think he technically wasn't even a part of the SAS.

(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)

The flight had been a long one, and Alex was more than happy to be back on English soil. They made it past security and passport control without any issues (as suspected) but that's when the trouble started.

They were waiting in the baggage claim area for their suitcases when they saw them. Actually, Alex was the one who first noticed them.

Six men were shoving their way through the crowds, making their way towards Alex and Ben. And of course the guy leading the others was the same guy who had held the gun to Alex's head in Miami. He just couldn't seem to get a break.

And that's how the four Australian soldiers found themselves racing through and English airport with a bunch of guys chasing them. This was entirely new for them. They were soldiers. They were used to taking orders and shooting from covered places at other soldiers in other covered places. They were not used to the world of espionage and the running away of guys with guns while trying not to get civilians shot. Which is why they were following Alex and Ben without any hesitation at all. The four were too far out of their league.

When they stopped to catch their breath in a dark, restricted hallway (which Alex had burst through without even caring enough to read the restricted part. Then again, when did he pay attention to the rules?), Sparks was the one to make the statement, "I am feeling so out of depth here. I'm thinking I'm definitely going to keep the espionage world to the two of you. I could never get used to this."

Ben smiled, "Just wait until sometime you're called to fight a bunch of highly trained assassins. That's when the fun starts."

Alex adopted a confused look, which was pretty obvious as fake. "Why is that when the fun starts? I've never had any trouble in that regard."

X-Ray raised an eyebrow. From the short time he had spent with Alex, he had learned that there were some very…interesting things about the boy and the way he got things done.

Fox was the one to explain, "Alex over here has been in the field so long that he has a million and four contacts. Not to mention the fact that the number one assassin in the world, until he died a couple of years ago, refused to kill Alex. That in of itself has some lasting impressions on the general assassin population. But you can't forget his father's work either, or the name he's given himself over the past couple of years while working for MI6. Basically, when people hear his name, they either run and hide so as not to get involved, or are cocky and make a bunch of mistakes. Very select few actually go with any amount of good skill and try to capture or kill Alex. Speaking of which, when was the last assassination attempt?"

Alex shrugged, "I think it might've been four weeks ago. I don't there have been too many so I've just started ignoring them. It's easier that way."

"See? This kid is crazy. No other kid-no, wait- no other ADULT would blow assassination attempts off as a part of daily life and just go with it. You're seriously going to get yourself killed one of these days."

Alex shrugged once more, "I've already surpassed the average life span of spies, so it's all good. I knew when I started that I'd be lucky to hit 17. But look, here I am. So we can worry about when I'm going to get myself killed later."

Scooter shook his head and was about to comment when the door burst open and six men ran through, spotting the group of Australians and Brits almost immediately.

"Run!" Ben shouted, even though it was unneeded.

While they were navigating the twists and turns in the hallways, Alex and Ben started planning, "How the heck are we going to get out of this airport? Once we're out, we're as good as free."

"I don't know, Alex. They have way too many men blocking the exits. And because of that one guy allowing to get seen, the airport is practically in lockdown."

Their conversation was cut off as they burst through another set of doors and found themselves once more in a terminal. And trapped.

Alex and Ben started swearing in multiple languages as they realized that both the right and the left was cut off, and the group that had been chasing them blocked the only escape.

"Give it up and surrender," One of the men called out. "There's no escape. We've completely sealed off the airport. Nowhere for you to run. Due to our informant within MI6, we have known when you would be arriving here since your flight was first booked. So just give it up and admit defeat. You've been outmatched and outsmarted."

Alex's and Ben's eyes roamed the area taking in every detail.

Finally, Alex's shoulders slumped, "Fine. I guess we'll just have to send you a postcard filled with gloating."

"Gre-WHAT?"

Alex smiled sweetly before dashing off in the one unblocked direction. The soldiers and Ben, having amazing reaction times were able to catch up pretty quickly. For no one else had seen what Alex had. The door leading to one of the walkways that attach to a plane. One that was just about to close.

The six were only just able to get on the plane before the doors closed, locking the hostiles in the airport.

Ben sighed and found a group of empty seats, "You seriously have the luck of the devil, Alex. I mean, the fact that a plane was just about to take off and there just happened to be a group of empty seats and you just happen to have a back pocket filled with cash which we can use for tickets. That's just a bit too coincidental."

Alex smiled wolfishly, "Maybe I planned it all out beforehand."

"No you didn't."

"Ok, so maybe I didn't, but still."

"You realize what this means, right?"

"That we can't take a plane back to England and that we can't contact MI6 due to that spy? Yea. I got that, Ben."

"Right. So now we just have to figure out how to get home using almost no MI6 resources to do so from…Where are we headed anyways?"

"_Ladies and Gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. We will be taking off momentarily, so will you please find your seats and buckle your seat belts. Thank you. It is estimated that we will be arriving in Slovenia in eight hours. Have a great flight."_

**A/N: And that is the end. The sequel/continuation/#3 in this series will be about their trip from Slovenia back to England using no MI6 resources and no airplanes. Should be interesting, right?**

**Anyways, if you're wondering where Slovenia is…look it up. It's in Europe. That's your hint. And yes, its just some random country. Hope you enjoyed 'Caught in the Act'!**


End file.
